COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
A Personal Use of the Divine: Mapping Rembrandt’s Sacred Works Onto His Reputation and Tragedies
Creator:
Flowers, Sophia
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
“This thesis examines how Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) used Christian imagery as a means of self-expression, by evaluating the alignment of its emotional subject matter with his life tragedies. Sacred depictions were undoubtedly a significant focus of Rembrandt’s work, since he was most active during the aftermath of the previous century’s religious tumult of the Reformation and Counter Reformation. His masters, such as Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), laid the foundation for his technique, but he soon diverged from their methods with his own painterly style. Since Rembrandt left no primary sources behind—aside from a few short letters—the psychoanalysis of his sacred imagery is analyzed through pathography, attempting to observe the inner life of an artist by a close exploration of their work. In this way, we can identify the personal meanings attached to the works, which gives us an understanding of their choices and psyche. Scholars have certainly investigated Rembrandt this way in the past, but there is not an argument connecting his religious works to his experiences as this one does. In periods of grief and anguish, he chose very emotionally charged subjects, such as the blinding of Samson, David and Jonathan, and The Prodigal Son. He would also insert himself into biblical narratives such as in his Raising of the Cross (1633), David’s Farewell to Jonathan (1642), and Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661). Works portraying the same subjects by his contemporaries, Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656) and Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), are in a classicizing mode that audiences preferred. Rembrandt’s transgressions of decorum can be partly attributed to a need for individuality and emotional expression during times of intense emotions.” –Abstract
Keywords: classicizing, counter reform, decorum, pathography, psychoanalysis, Peter Paul Rubens, sacred imagery, Gerard van Honthorst, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.
Keywords: classicizing, counter reform, decorum, pathography, psychoanalysis, Peter Paul Rubens, sacred imagery, Gerard van Honthorst, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2025-05
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 49 pages, color illustrations)