Abstract
In some cases the history of the production of a painting by Rembrandt can be followed so closely that his artistic deliber ations can be seen as it were. This is all the more the case in the Berlin Susanna and the Elders, since there are strong indications that Rembrandt worked on this painting on and off for nearly a decade. While this had already been suspected for a long time, the research conducted on this painting and described here adds to our knowledge and understanding of its genesis. With a reinterpretation of old information and the availability of new data, it is also possible to follow Rembrandt’s artistic development between 1638 and 1647 as it manifested itself while he was working on this painting. The greater part of this entry, therefore, is devoted to the inter pretation of the ‘archaeological’ data of which this painting is the ‘site’, and of the drawings and other works that play a role in the reconstruction of the evolution of this significant work.
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Notes
J. Bauch and D. Eckstein, ‘Woodbiological investigations on panels of Rembrandt paintings’, Wood Science and Technology 15 (1981), pp. 251–263, esp. 255. See also Corpus IV, p. 657.
P. Klein, ‚Hat Rembrandt auf Zuckerkistenholz gemalt?‘, Zuckerhistorische Beiträge aus der Alten und Neuen Welt, Schriften aus dem Zucker-Museum, Heft 25, Berlin 1988, pp. 37–43, esp. 40–41.
H. Kauffmann, ‚Rembrandts Berliner Susanna‘, Jb. d. Pr. Kunsts. 45 (1924), pp. 72–80.
A. Burroughs, ‘New illustrations of Rembrand’s style’, Burl. Mag. 59 (1931), pp. 3–10, esp. 9 and Plate I C.
Sumowski Drawings IV, no. 823x.
W. Wegner, ‚Bemerkungen zu Zeichnungen der Rembrandtschule im Museum der bildenden Künste in Budapest und zum Problem der Rembrandtwerkstatt‘, Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 34–35 (1970), pp. 103–110, esp. 106–108, fig. 75.
O. Benesch, Rembrandt. Werk und Forschung, Vienna 1935, pp. 38–39, esp. 38.
Strauss Doc., 1659/16, 1659/18, 1659/19, 1659/21.
H. Kauffmann, ‚Eine Vorzeichnung Rembrandts zur Dresdener Saskia von 1641‘, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 41 (1919), pp. 34–56, esp. 45, note 26a.
L. Burchard, ‚Eine neue Rembrandtzeichnung‘, Jb. d. Pr. Kunsts. 33 (1912), pp. 173–175.
C. Dittrich, Th. Ketelsen, Rembrandt. Die Dresdener Zeichnungen, Cologne 2004, cat. no. 87.
Rembrandt’s changing conception of movement in painting over the course of the 1640’s and subsequent years are elaborated in more detail in: E. van de Wetering, ‘Rembrandt as a searching artist’, in: Rembrandt. Quest of a genius, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 108–115.
P. Schatborn in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt. Drawings and Etchings, 1991/92, cat. no. 24.
See note 15; H. Bevers, Rembrandt. Die Zeichnungen im Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin 2006, cat. no. 27.
P. Noble, A. van Loon, ‘New insights into Rembrandt’s Susanna’, in: Art Matters Netherlands Technical Studies in Art, 2 (2005), pp. 76–97, esp. 78.
Gerson 221.
Hollst. XLIII, no. 4; see P. van Thiel in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt. Paintings, 1991/92, cat. no. 25.
B. Broos in: exhib. cat. De Rembrandt à Vermeer. Les peintres hollandais au Mauritshuis de La Haye, Paris (Grand Palais) 1986, cat. no. 41; Bevers, op.cit.16, cat. no. 18.
For an interesting study of the Hague Susanna and the representation of the female nude, see: E.J. Sluijter, ‘Rembrand’s early paintings of the female nude: Andromeda and Susanna’, in: G. Cavalli-Björkman (ed.), Rembrandt and his pupils; papers given at a Symposium in Nationalmuseum Stockholm, 2–3 October 1992, Stockholm 1993, pp. 31–54.
A. Henkel and A. Schöne (eds.), Emblemata-Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1967, cols. 814–818.
Tümpel 1986, p. 250.
A. Blankert, ‘Classicism in Dutch history painting’, in: exhib. cat. Dutch Classicism in seventeenth-century painting, Rotterdam/Frankfurt 1999–2000, pp. 12–33.
E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt and the female nude, Amsterdam 2006.
E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt and the female nude, Amsterdam 2006 Sluijter, op.cit.27, p. 132.
E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt and the female nude, Amsterdam 2006 Sluijter, op.cit.27, p. 135.
Chr. White in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt in 18th Century England, [New Haven] Yale Center for British Art 1983, cat. no. 5.
F. Broun, ‘Rembrandts in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds’, unpublished typescript 1984, no. 2; J. Kelch in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt. Paintings, 1991/92, no. 37.
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Van De Wetering, E. (2011). Rembrandt — Susanna and the Elders. In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5786-1_6
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