The exhibition features etchings those who Rovinsky attributed to the end of XIX century as the work of Rembrandt. Printed in Leiden and Amsterdam, they are as early self-portraits and portraits of his mother in 1620-ies, and the last etching, the artist executed in 1665 - a portrait of Jan van der Linden.
Rembrandt's Artistic Heritage of about 500 paintings, 1000 drawings and nearly 300 engravings. His full name Rembrandt Harmenszoon (ie son Harmensz) van Rijn. He was born July 15, 1606 in Leiden, the second largest city of Holland.
Rembrandt the printmaker - a phenomenon that is unparalleled in the history of art: he created more than 300 self-portraits, religious compositions, portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, nudes, beggars, griffonazhey. Developed Rembrandt engraving technique was so complicated that, with rare exceptions, the attempts of his followers to repeat or use his methods only cause regret. As in painting, primarily in the etchings of Rembrandt was light. He obeyed the line engraving machines are impossible, as it turned out to repeat the experiments, many of which have long been taken for signs of carelessness or forgetfulness of the wizard. But every movement is an engraver was whet and thought. That is why the "test" prints to the boards, which his predecessors were thrown in the basket, Rembrandt brought to the level of independent works. The sequence of these prints with the author's revised estimated "states" (the number of Rembrandt reaches 12). To see them next to each other - is not so much to look "kitchen" of the artist as a way to become a witness of the artistic genius of the game.
The two main themes of Leyden etchings 1620 - early 1630's were self-portraits and beggars. Rembrandt created an unprecedented number of portraits of their own - only about 80, a third of them - into print. Self-portraits were a young artist at the same time a means of mastering the transfer of human emotion and advertising - edition of prints was a means to achieve fame on the Dutch art market, which is facing a stubborn bloom in the early XVII century.
By 1633, Rembrandt, by this time had an independent artist, performing the orders of the Hague court and having a few students, moved to Amsterdam, where he will spend the rest of his life. In his engraving 1630 there are new themes (custom portrait, nude). Dramatically changing and self-portraits. Rather small, the size of a postage stamp, Studies of human emotions, images appear far more formal nature. In these portraits is a story about the changed social status of the artist. Before the audience appears no longer an angry young man with a luxuriant head of hair, and held professional, metropolitan artist who knows his own worth. Particularly noteworthy suit, which in the early self-portraits has been given minimal attention. Rembrandt depicts himself dressed not in a fashionable dress in Amsterdam 1630-ies, and in the costume of XVI century, "citing" the portraits of his idols, the great artists of the North, Lucas van Leyden and Albrecht Durer engravings which he buys at the Amsterdam auction. Using the language of art, therefore, he boldly put himself in with some of his great predecessors, deliberately changes its signature: a monogram "RHL", meaning "Rembrandt Harmensz son of Leiden, on" Rembrandt "in 1632. Meaning changes easily "read" by contemporaries masters: it refers to the great names Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, which had no need to call in full.
1653 - 1655 years can justifiably be called the years of Rembrandt's heyday as an engraver. His main theme in these years is the history of the earthly life of Christ. Over the last three years of his career as an engraver, Rembrandt performed their own version of the Bible, in fact - "The Gospel of Rembrandt, standing along with his great predecessors and competitors, the masters of the art engraving by Albrecht Dürer, Luca Leiden and Jacques Callot. The culmination of this grand engraved analogue of the Scriptures has become engraved in the technique of dry point "Behold the man" ( "Christ before the people"), represented at the exhibition in two states.
Exhibition collection Rovinsky - a rare opportunity to see the engravings of Rembrandt's legacy almost in full. By selection of etchings and their states this collection - one of the most comprehensive in the world (it has 968 engravings by Rembrandt and his school).
This collection also says a lot about the collector. Dmitry Rovinsky (1824 - 1895) was a lawyer, one of the major figures of the judicial reform. His collection totaled some 100,000 Russian and Western prints. DA Rovinsky, starting the creation of national science on the art of writing the history of icon painting and engraving, finished the research catalog of the Russian lubok and etchings by Rembrandt.
"Atlas" Rovinsky - strict classification, in which attention is paid to the definition of "states" of each etching. But it is also a very personal view of the artist, is largely colored by mythology, has given Russian art lovers French Mythmakers. Largely thanks to DA Rovinsky, and strongly influence him VV Stasov, "Russian Rembrandt," reads their contemporaries as a forerunner of the Wanderers, an artist of social anger and protest. According to the testament of Dmitry Rovinsky, "Rembrandt" part of his collection was transferred to the Imperial Hermitage in 1897
As part of the Hermitage /UNESCO, the Government of the Netherlands in 1977 was allocated $ 75,000 for a comprehensive project to study the collection Rovinsky. The Dutch side has offered workshops to a wide use of modern technology. Research and conservation of etchings done in the Rekysmuzeume specialists of the State Hermitage Museum in collaboration with Dutch colleagues. All the etchings were photographed in its original form, in the old mat to secure the historic status of the collection. Apart from that, the soft X-rays, which allowed to identify the watermarks on the paper used by Rembrandt.
Exhibition's curator - Roman G. Grigoriev, Acting Chief, Division of Western European art prints of the State Hermitage, the candidate of art history. The exhibition illustrated scholarly catalog, authored by RG Grigoriev.
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