Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3) by S. Spooner (best ebook reader under 100 TXT) 📖

banks of the Rhine, between Leyderdorp and Leyden,

whence he was called Rembrandt van Rhyn, though his family name was

Gerretz. It is said that his father, being in easy circumstances,

intended him for one of the learned professions, but was induced by

Rembrandt's passion for the art to allow him to follow his inclination.

He entered the school of J. van Zwaanenberg at Amsterdam, where he

continued three years, and made such surprising progress as astonished

his instructor. Having learned from Zwaanenberg all he was capable of

imparting, he next studied about six months with Peter Lastmann, and

afterwards for a short time with Jacob Pinas, from whom it is said he

acquired that taste for strong contrasts of light and shadow, for which

his works are so remarkable. He was, however, more indebted for his best

improvement to the vivacity of his own genius, and an attentive study of

nature, than to any information he derived from his instructors. On

returning home, he fitted up an attic room, with a skylight, in his

father's mill, for a studio, where he probably pursued his labors for

several years, as he did not remove to Amsterdam till 1630. Here he

studied the grotesque figure of the Dutch boor, or the rotund contour of

the bar-maid of an ale house, with as much precision as the great

artists of Italy have imitated the Apollo Belvidere, or the Medicean

Venus. He was exceedingly ignorant, and it is said that he could

scarcely read. He was of a wayward and eccentric disposition, and sought

for recreation among the lowest orders of the people, in the amusements

of the ale-house, contracting habits which continued through life; even

when in prosperous circumstances, he manifested no disposition to

associate with more refined and intellectual society. It will readily be

perceived that his habits, disposition, and studies could not conduct

him to the noble conceptions of Raffaelle, but rather to an exact

imitation of the lowest order of nature, with which he delighted to be

surrounded. The life of Rembrandt is much involved in fable, and in

order to form a just estimate of his powers, it is necessary to take

these things into consideration. It is said by some writers, that, had

he studied the antique, he would have reached the very perfection of the

art, but Nieuwenhuys, in his review of the Lives and Works of the most

eminent painters of the Dutch and Flemish schools, in Smith's Catalogue

raisonné, vol xii. and supplement, says that he was by no means

deficient on that point. "For it is known that he purchased, at a high

price, casts from the antique marbles, paintings, drawings, and

engravings by the most excellent Italian masters, to assist him in his

studies, and which are mentioned in the inventory of his goods when

seized for debt."

 

He then goes on to give a list of the works so seized. Be this as it may

he certainly never derived any advantage from them. He had collected a

great variety of old armor, sabres, flags, and fantastical vestments,

ironically terming them his antiques, and frequently introducing them

into his pictures.

 

Rembrandt had already brought both the arts of painting and engraving to

very great perfection (in his own way), when a slight incident led him

to fame and fortune. He was induced by a friend to take one of his

choicest pictures to a picture-dealer at the Hague, who, being charmed

with the performance, instantly gave him a hundred florins for it, and

treated him with great respect. This occurrence served to convince the

public of his merit, and contributed to make the artist sensible of his

own abilities. In 1630 he went to Amsterdam, where he married a handsome

peasant girl (frequently copied in his works), and settled there for

life. His paintings were soon in extraordinary demand, and his fame

spread far and wide; pupils flocked to his studio, and he received for

the instruction of each a hundred florins a year. He was so excessively

avaricious that he soon abandoned his former careful and finished

style, for a rapid execution; also frequently retouched the pictures of

his best pupils, and sold them as his own. His deceits in dating several

of his etchings at Venice, to make them more saleable, led some of his

biographers to believe that he visited Italy, and resided at Venice in

1635 and 1636; but it has been satisfactorily proved that he never left

Holland, though he constantly threatened to do so, in order to increase

the sale of his works. As early as 1628, he applied himself zealously to

etching, and soon acquired great perfection in the art. His etchings

were esteemed as highly as his paintings, and he had recourse to several

artifices to raise their price and increase their sales. For example, he

sold impressions from the unfinished plates, then finished them, and

after having used them, made some slight alterations, and thus sold the

same works three or four times; producing what connoisseurs term

_variations_ in prints. By these practices, and his parsimonious manner

of living, Rembrandt amassed a large fortune.

 

 

 

 

REMBRANDT'S WORKS.

 

 

His works are numerous, and are dispersed in various public and private

collections of Europe; and when they are offered for sale they command

enormous prices. There are eight of his pictures in the English National

Gallery; one of these, the Woman taken in Adultery, formerly in the

Orleans collection, sold for £5000. In Smith's Catalogue raisonné is a

description of six hundred and forty pictures by him, the public and

private galleries and collections in which they were located at the time

of the publication of the work, together with a copious list of his

drawings and etchings, and much other interesting information. He left

many studies, sketches, and drawings, executed in a charming style,

which are now scarce and valuable.

 

 

 

 

REMBRANDT AS AN ENGRAVER.

 

 

Rembrandt holds a distinguished rank among the engravers of his country;

he established a more important epoch in this art than any other master.

He was indebted entirely to his own genius for the invention of a

process which has thrown an indescribable charm over his plates. They

are partly etched, frequently much assisted by the dry point, and

occasionally, though rarely, finished with the graver; evincing the most

extraordinary facility of hand, and displaying the most consummate

knowledge of light and shadow. His free and playful point sports in

picturesque disorder, producing the most surprising and enchanting

effects, as if by accident; yet an examination will show that his

motions are always regulated by a profound knowledge of the principles

of light and shadow. His most admirable productions in both arts are his

portraits, which are executed with unexampled expression and skill. For

a full description of his prints, the reader is referred to Bartsch's

Peintre Graveur.

 

His prints are very numerous, yet they command very high prices. The

largest collection of his prints known, was made by M. de Burgy at the

Hague, who died in 1755. This collection contained 665 prints with their

variations, namely, 257 portraits, 161 histories, 155 figures, and 85

landscapes. There are no less than 27 portraits of Rembrandt by himself.

 

 

 

 

ANECDOTE OF SCHWARTS.

 

 

Sandrart relates the following anecdote of Christopher Schwarts, a

famous German painter, which, if true, redounds more to his ingenuity

than to his credit. Having been engaged to paint the ceiling of the Town

Hall at Munich by the day, his love of dissipation induced him to

neglect his work, so that the magistrates and overseers of the work were

frequently obliged to hunt him out at the cabaret. As he could no longer

drink in quiet, he stuffed an image of himself, left the legs hanging

down between the staging where he was accustomed to work, and sent one

of his boon companions to move the image a little two or three times a

day, and to take it away at noon and night. By means of this deception,

he drank without the least disturbance a whole fortnight together, the

inn-keeper being privy to the plot. The officers came in twice a day to

look after him, and seeing the well known stockings and shoes which he

was accustomed to wear, suspected nothing wrong, and went their way,

greatly extolling their own convert, as the most industrious and

conscientious painter in the world.

 

 

 

 

JACQUES CALLOT.

 

 

This eminent French engraver was born at Nancy, in Lorraine, in 1593. He

was the son of Jean Callot, a gentleman of noble family, who intended

him for a very different profession, and endeavored to restrain his

natural passion for art; but when he was twelve years old, he left his

home without money or resources, joined a company of wandering

Bohemians, and found his way to Florence, where some officer of the

court, discovering his inclination for drawing, placed him under

Cantagallina. After passing some time at Florence, he went to Rome,

where he was recognized by some friends of his family, who persuaded him

to return to his parents. Meeting with continual opposition, he again

absconded, but was followed by his brother to Turin, and taken back to

Nancy. His parents, at length finding his love of art too firmly

implanted to be eradicated, concluded to allow him to follow the bent of

his genius, and they sent him to Rome in the suite of the Envoy from the

Duke of Lorraine to the Pope. Here he studied with the greatest

assiduity, and soon distinguished himself as a very skillful engraver.

From Rome he went to Florence, where his talents recommended him to the

patronage of the Grand Duke Cosmo II., on whose death he returned to

Nancy, where he was liberally patronized by Henry, Duke of Lorraine.

When misfortune overtook that prince, he went to Paris, whither his

reputation had preceded him, where he was employed by Louis XIII. to

engrave the successes of the French arms, particularly the siege of the

Isle de Ré, in sixteen sheets; the siege of Rochelle, do.; and the siege

of Breda, in eight sheets. His prints are very numerous, and are highly

esteemed; Heineken gives a full list of his prints, amounting to over

fifteen hundred! The fertility of his invention and the facility of his

hand were wonderful; yet his prints are accurately designed. He

frequently made several drawings for the same plate before he was

satisfied. Watelet says that he saw four different drawings by him for

the celebrated Temptation of St. Anthony. His drawings are also greatly

admired and highly prized.

 

 

 

 

CALLOT'S PATRIOTISM.

 

 

When Cardinal Richelieu desired Callot to design and engrave a set of

plates descriptive of the siege and fall of his native town, he promptly

refused; and when the Cardinal peremptorily insisted that he should do

it, he replied, "My Lord, if you continue to urge me, I will cut off the

thumb of my right hand before your face, for I never will consent to

perpetuate the calamity and disgrace of my sovereign and protector."

 

 

 

 

INGENUITY OF ARTISTS.

 

 

Pliny asserts that an ingenious artist wrote the whole of the Iliad on

so small a piece of parchment that it might be enclosed within the

compass of a nut-shell. Cicero also records the same thing. This

doubtless might be done on a strip of thin parchment, and rolling it

compactly.

 

Heylin, in his life of Charles I., says that in Queen Elizabeth's time,

a person wrote the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Pater Noster, the

Queen's name, and the date, within the compass of a penny, which he

presented to her Majesty, together with a pair of spectacles of such an

artificial make, that by their help she plainly discerned every letter.

One Francis Almonus wrote the Creed, and the first fourteen verses of

the Gospel of St. John, on a piece of parchment no larger than a penny.

In the library of St. John's College, Oxford, is a picture of Charles I.

done with a pen, the lines of which contain all the psalms, written in a

legible hand.

 

"At Halston, in Shropshire, the seat of the Myttons, is preserved a

carving much resembling that mentioned by Walpole in his Anecdotes of

Painting, vol. ii., p. 42. It is the portrait of Charles I., full-faced,

cut on a peach-stone; above, is a crown; his face, and clothes which are

of a Vandyck dress are painted; on the reverse is an eagle transfixed

with an arrow, and round it is this motto: _I feathered this arrow._ The

whole is most admirably executed, and is set in gold, with a crystal on

each side. It probably was the work of Nicholas Bryot, a great graver of

the mint in the time of Charles I."--_Pennant's Wales._

 

In the Royal Museum at Copenhagen is a common cherry-stone, on the

surface of which are cut two hundred and twenty heads!

 

 

 

 

A HINT TO JEWELERS.

 

 

"When the haughty and able Pope Innocent III. caused Cardinal Langton to

be elected Archbishop of Canterbury in despite of King John, and

compelled him to submit, to appease the latter