Left: Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Syndics of the Draper's Guild
1661
75.4 in x 109.8 in
Oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Right: Self-portrait
1659
Oil on canvas
33.3 in x 26 in
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
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The Desecration of Rembrandt's Gentle Men
By: Kidist P. Asrat
Rembrandt was commissioned to paint many group portraits of relatively wealthy and influential members of society from the guilds, town councils and other civic institutions of 17th century Holland. His group portrait of the De Staalmeesters, known as Syndics of the Draper's Guild in English, portrays a group of tradesmen reviewing the quality of cloth samples. He shows us more than just a guild meeting.
He has submerged the protagonists with a gentle light and avoids stark contrasts and sharp demarcations, which were common in his earlier paintings. This blending of contrasts makes the men to appear more gentle – they are not tormented by dilemmas of Biblical proportions. They are but wealthy citizens trying to bring about civility and order through their dutiful influence. At the same time, these are men who make difficult and sometimes harsh decisions, and the caution and wisdom in their faces recognizes that they need to always be alert to their surroundings.
Technically, Rembrandt achieves this mixture of gentleness and caution with the natural chiaroscuro provided by the dark clothes and the contrasting white collars. The men's illumined (enlightened, intelligent) faces are lit up by the light reflected off their white collars. The costumes, as well as describing rank and status, become natural props aiding Rembrandt's technique of playing with light and dark contrasts, light and dark moods, light and dark personalities, and other psychological polarities.
Rembrandt is the master of painting technique, above all using light. He has placed muted gold everywhere, from the cloth on the table to the paneling in the back wall. The effect is a glow from undecipherable sources, portraying a subdued presence of wealth, since despite their austere clothing, and probably equally restrained passions, these are men have financial and social security.
Rembrandt's art is also full of movement. The rhythm of the white collars in Syndics of the Draper's Guildtake takes us from one side of the group to the other in gentle curves. Rembrandt wants us to see the men one after the other with this slow sweep of motion, where each man is distinct and individual.
The men appear surprised by an unexpected visitor. They are looking up, or around, at the visitor, and one guild member is standing up to acknowledge (confront?) the visitor. This puts a spontaneous tone to the painting, which a formal sitting couldn't.
Since we cannot see this 'unexpected guest', then could it be us, the viewers? In such a manner, Rembrandt includes us into his painting, and joins us, even several hundred years later, with his gentle men.
This invitation is for all, including postmodern writer Zadie Smith. But Smith is unable to accept this invitation with dignity and humility. Instead, she reciprocates by writing her inaccurate and mean-spirited book against Rembrandt which she titles On Beauty. Her protagonists and mouthpiece, art history professor Howard Belsey, is writing (or unable to finish writing) a book on Rembrandt titled Against Rembrandt. What struck me most about the book was its inaccuracies, starting with the title. The whole book is a treatise against beauty; a book 'on beauty' whose main character hates Rembrandt.
Ultimately, I realized that Zadie Smith is unable to discuss beauty. Along with a lack of real knowledge on the subject, and on Rembrandt, she has no sensitivity toward beauty. In fact, overall, she is anti-beauty. Just like the anti-Rembrandt Howard.
I think this is the danger of this post-modern world, this multicultural world from which Smith hails, as evidenced in her second novel White Teeth. She personifies the contemporary writer or artist who doesn't want to spend the time doing the serious work, but would rather use an idea, a rebellious treatise against beauty, for example, or the chaotic world of multicultural London in White Teeth, to write rambling, imprecise and incomplete books. But her critics are equally lazy, or they've thrown out whatever standards they have to participate in the anti-beauty and anti-civilization treatises that "artists" and "writers" like Smith are advocating.
But the problem is more serious than a second-rate writer spilling out some angst. It is the sign of our times that people who profess to work against beauty are hailed as our cultural icons. With a careless sweep of the pen (or brush), they discredit centuries of learning and tradition. It takes little energy to destroy, but much energy to build. With one swoop of an explosive, a whole skyscraper can be brought to rubble. But to build that edifice takes years if not decades.
Beauty's progress has not been decades, but several millennia. Its slow evolution, building on the best of its past, has brought us wonders on earth. Within the last one hundred years, this process has had a potent grenade thrown at it, and we are beginning to see the desolate replacements, with the ruins not far behind them.
Smith's new book, NW, as in: "Northwest London, a council-flat heavy area in which Caribbean immigrants have gradually displaced the shanty Irish" is described as:
...a novel that feels unfinished and brandishes its uncertainties. In the essay "That Crafty Feeling," Smith compares the process of tricking herself into writing a novel to erecting scaffolding to construct a building. In NW, it's hard to tell where the scaffolding ends and the finished work begins: Perhaps that is the point (1).No, there is no "perhaps." That is the point.
Smith could have redeemed herself by constructing a precise and artistic Rembrandt-like oeuvre. Instead, what we get from her is a lazy mesh of scrawls, hardly even a sketch. What would Rembrandt, strict and observant, think of the desecration of his paintings by second-rate writer Zadie Smith?
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1. Cooke, Rachel. 2012, August 26. NW by Zadie Smith – review. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/26/nw-zadie-smith-review