Frankfurt am Main,
The beginning of 2020 brought the exhibition “Rembrandt and the portrait in Amsterdam, 1590-1670” to the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, an exhibition that, taking advantage of the close link between the Thyssen-Bornemisza family and the Dutch settings where Rembrandt spent his career today, analyzed the handling of portraiture by that author in parallel to the development of the genre in that 17th century and in the city of Amsterdam itself.
The thematic scope of that proposal expands, although a good part of the pieces collected are once again portraits, the exhibition “Rembrandt’s Amsterdam. Golden Times?”, which is offered until next March by the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main and which highlights the artistic flowering that the current capital of Holland experienced four centuries ago: the rise of the economy and commerce – driven by products from the Asian and African colonies -, the rapid growth of the population – which tripled, with the security problems that this entails -, scientific findings and a civil society that was gaining influence explain, in addition to that splendor in what pictorial, that this city then became one of the great, or the great, European metropolis, attractive to artists such as Rembrandt himself, Jacob Backer, Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Nicolaes Eliasz, Pickenoy and Jan Victors .
The portraits of the creator of anatomy lesson They constitute the basis of this project, organized in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum, which has lent its works on this theme for the occasion, canvases that rarely leave that center. About a hundred paintings, sculptures and engravings can be seen in the Städel, as well as cultural and historical objects from other Dutch and international museums, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Metropolitan in New York, the Koninklijk Museum van Schone Kunsten in Antwerp and the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw (the collections of the Frankfurt museum, which celebrates its 125 years of history, are also rich in collections from this period).
The urban elites were the main clients of the aforementioned artists, from whom the then innovative group portraits were sometimes requested (we must emphasize the role of patronage in this context of guilds of artisans and merchants, civic guard, governors) , but the exhibition also wants to pay attention to those who had fewer opportunities to experience that prosperity that was not entirely generalized; The narrative of the exhibition, curated by Jochen Sander, seeks to display facets of a plural society in which wealth and poverty, luxury and penury fit together; In short, to approach the Golden Age from a critical approach, to examine a city that, as the collected paintings themselves indicate, was going through profound economic and social transformations, and to give space to those who were rarely portrayed, at least from an individual perspective.
For the curator, delving into these anonymous stories is as necessary as it is valuable to truly understand the Amsterdam in which Rembrandt lived since 1630. Taking into account his earliest biography, the one that Jan Orlers wrote in 1641: And because his work and his art had greatly pleased and impressed the citizens and residents of Amsterdam, receiving frequent commissions for portraits, as well as requests for other paintings, he decided to move from Leiden to Amsterdam. Consequently, he moved around 1630, taking up residence there.
The tour begins with works linked to the city’s own development, its economic boom and its conversion into a commercial epicenter, such as Allegory about the expansion of Amsterdam (ca. 1663) by Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem, View of Dam Square with the new town hall under construction (1656) by Johannes Lingelbach, and The inner courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (ca. 1670) by Job Adriaensz Berckheyde. That stock exchange was the place where traders made their transactions, including those linked to the shares of the Dutch companies in the East and West Indies, founded in 1602 and 1621, respectively. In a strikingly short time, these companies forcibly established a colonial empire in Asia, Africa and America, from which the slave trade was not exempt, as the exhibition recalls. Immense fortunes were amassed in this way, but they were also lost through speculation.
We are referring to the almost enormous increase in the population of Amsterdam while Rembrandt lived there: orphanages, shelters for the homeless and homes for the elderly, normally run by bourgeois volunteers, grew accordingly; At the Städel we will contemplate a series of group paintings commissioned by the superintendents of a Aalmozeniershuis (almshouse) that reflect alms workers busy with their daily tasks and that are inspired by the Catholic pictorial tradition of the Seven Works of Mercy.
Also represented is a Burgerweeshuis (city orphanage), which offered shelter, food and education to orphaned children from bourgeois families, whose daily life in the hospice was strictly regulated to guarantee their obedience and future social usefulness: in The regents of the Burgerweeshuis (1633 – 1634) by Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, those portrayed proudly present themselves as protectors of the children, but the latter remain anonymous and stereotyped. It was common for this to be the case, but there are exceptions: in the Portrait of Malle Baandjeby an unknown creator from Amsterdam, the carefully recreated one was placed in the city’s orphanage for life due to a mental disability. We will also see in this exhibition compositions dedicated to the citizen militias (archers, harquebusiers and crossbowmen), who commissioned and paid for their own group portraits.
In this type of painting, as is well known, innovative and with Dutch roots, Govaert Flinck, Thomas de Keyser and Nicolaes Eliasz stood out. Pickenoy, which captured companies of militiamen preparing to march or enjoying festive banquets, although we owe the most famous composition of this matter to Rembrandt himself: it is his night watchwhich never leaves the Rijksmuseum; A drawing by Jacob Colijns based on that work has indeed arrived in Frankfurt am Main.
One of the best portrait painters of this time and this geography was Bartholomeus van der Helst, but the tradition of representing groups would decline, in part, for rather pedestrian reasons: the lack of space in the venues where they met and the format necessarily larger than those pieces. It is worth noting, however, that Rembrandt and his fellow Amsterdam artists produced group portraits of the members of the surgeons’ guild, honoring the city’s doctors for posterity and documenting the beginning of the (then involuntary) donation of bodies. A notable example is The osteology lesson of Dr. Sebastiaen Egbertsz. (1619), attributed to Werner van den Valckert or Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, which reflects the skeleton of an English sailor who was executed for piracy in the Netherlands. Just like Dr. Jan Deijman’s anatomy lesson (1656) by Rembrandt, gives rise to reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary jurisprudence, scientific progress and public curiosity.
Deeply moving is Rembrandt’s drawing of the body of Elsje Christiaens, who was sentenced to death in 1664 for murder and subsequently publicly executed. His body was left to die on the outskirts of the city, illustrating a case of double punishment in line with the criminal justice practices of the time: after enduring public defamation and execution, he was also denied a Christian burial and a suitable resting place. In this way, the city’s inhabitants and visitors were starkly reminded of the harshness of the legal system.
Although they are not his most widespread works, throughout his career Rembrandt paid attention to the social marginalized and drew beggars, the sick, street vendors and street musicians with an attentive gaze. From a certain playful perspective, he even incorporated his own features into a Beggar sitting on a dirt bench (1630). The exhibition presents a selection of his engravings from the Städel collection, which prove how, unlike many of his contemporaries, he avoided stereotypes and caricatures and set out to represent reality without judging it. Ultimately, these works also served as a visual repertoire for the creation of narrative biblical scenes, such as the Engraving of the hundred florins (around 1648).
The exhibition also includes a series of portraits made by Rembrandt in Amsterdam and others created by his students and contemporaries, highlighting the Portrait of Maertgen van Bilderbeecq (1633) of the teacher or the Portrait of Pieter Six (1677) by Caspar Netscher. The undisputed masterpiece in this sense, in the Städel collection, is the historical painting Samson’s blinding (1636), which showcases the Leidenman’s exceptional talent for incisively capturing the dramatic climax of a story.
Finally, visitors become familiar with life in Amsterdam’s penitentiaries, which were first established in Rembrandt’s time and which allow for discussion of the question of what we understand and understood by crime and the innovative concept of resocialization through through meaningful work to benefit the community. Thus, beggars and petty criminals were sent to the so-called “Rasphuis”, where they had to cut (or “scrape”) Brazilian redwood to produce a red dye used in the textile industry; Delinquent women, particularly prostitutes, were taken to the “Spinhuis”, where they engaged in crafts such as spinning, lace-making and sewing. The goal of these monotonous activities, traditionally associated with virtue, was to reintegrate them into society.
In the reading proposed by the exhibition, the Dutch bourgeois class prioritized efficiency along with the common good and, although this culture contributed significantly to the success of Amsterdam at the time, it also served to reinforce some social divisions.
“Rembrandt’s Amsterdam. “Golden Times?”
STÄDEL MUSEUM
Schaumainkai 63
Frankfurt am Main
From November 27, 2024 to March 23, 2025
