Composition - examples of note

[Mike McCarty]

This first painting by Rembrandt, "Philosopher in meditation" 11x13, is one of the most remarkable designs I think I have ever seen in a painting. This staircase would be a nightmare for any modern day trim carpenter.

And while on Rembrandt here are a few more. This self portrait 35x29 is one striking image. An imposing Orson Wellsian girth, and save for the feathered chapeau, it's rather sparse of arms, hands and other detractors, just the imposing figure of that bell shaped coat.

Personally, I've come around to the thinking that more room around the subject is better than less. It tends to bestow a sense of importance that the tightly cropped designs do not. I'm going to try and battle away from the tight crops, if I can.

And then there is the portrait of Nicolaes Ruts, 46x34 on mahogany, having just been presented with Rembrandt's invoice. Worth every penny no doubt.

And another self portrait etching. I love the hats. I've read that it was President JFK that killed the hat for men.

[Mike McCarty]

Here are some close ups of the above images. And as a closing gesture, I offer each of you the double bird, also by Rembrandt.

[Michele Rushworth]

I just saw that Rembrandt of Nicholaes Ruts at the Frick in New York. After three days of museum hopping, that was the painting that stuck out in my mind. Nothing else came close.

[Ant Carlos]

I wonder if there is anything about Rembrandt that was not said before. One thing that amazes me is how his style - and, of course, the use of light and shadows - is connected to Caravaggio's since Rembrandt never left Holland (or did he?). The Italian was the first one to create such dramatic chiaroscuro effects and died when Rembrandt was only 4 years old or so. Some dutch painters started developing the Caravaggio approach in Rembrandt's era so maybe he captured it from his fellows.

Ant

[Mike McCarty]

I too wonder how this kind of information was disseminated back when. It leads me to believe that it is possible to come to proper conclusions while stewing along in one's own soup. I also wonder if these genius painters would have been better, or worse, had they had the benefit of so much information. In our age we have the benefit of almost ALL that has ever gone before us, and yet there is not a Rembrandt or a Beethoven on every corner.

It makes no sense that painters and musicians from hundreds of years ago would be so much better than anyone living today. They had so little to draw on and we have everything. I tend to conclude that it is a combination of three factors: a purely genius mind, combined with an appreciative and supportive social culture, and the absence of our distracting modern life. I think there are the genius minds living today, but the other two factors detract from the sum of the parts.

I wonder if there is anything about Rembrandt that was not said before.

I doubt it Ant. It is Rembrandt that will continue to speak. People like me can only post his paintings in a convenient place.

And lest we begin to take ourselves too seriously, here is a drawing by Claude Monet: Petit Pantheon Theatral 1860. I think I can make out Leon Russell down at the bottom, Golda Meir, and possibly Richard Nixon, but the others escape me.

[Ant Carlos]

and the absence of our distracting modern life

Now this hat fits me all right, yes it does. The variety of things that my mind interests in seem to always carry me away from my focal point. Astronomy (I have a 10" Newtonian and large admiration for the skies), racing sports, movies, and so on. I am not kidding when I say that sometimes I wish I was back in the 17th century, when the artist would spend the whole day painting, and great part of the night talking art with his fellows, and that was it.
But here I am, before this computer, reading you and watching all these great pictures. Then it also comes to my mind that an important part of my clients come from different places around the world, with long distance commissions via Internet. Would I, or my art, survive without the modern technology?

Regards,

Ant

[Mike McCarty]

Ant,

I can only offer this, the opening line of the Dickens "A tail of two cities," describing England and France in the year 1775:

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

*****

And just when I was trying to battle out of my closely cropped period I happen upon this, from Jean-Leon Gerome, 0x15. This is enough to make a grown man cry. I am particularly drawn to these poses of children which show them at their less than chipper state. I have done more than a few of these myself.