Abstract
As will be demonstrated in the Comments of this entry, this painting has been so convincingly documented that, if on this basis alone, there can scarcely be any doubt as to its authenticity. Arguments derived from the analysis of the painting’s artistic quality and from insight into the role the work played, both in and later beyond Rembrandt’s workshop, converge with the documentary evidence, leading to the certainty that this painting is from Rembrandt’s hand.
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Notes
We used the Dutch Authorised Version of the Bible because it contains commentaries that may have played a role in the way in which the scene in this painting was presented. The following edition was used Biblia, dat is de gantsche H. Schrifture, vervattende alle de Canonijcke Boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments…, Leiden 1637. See also Chr. Tümpel in: exhib. cat. Rembrandt. Quest of a genius, 2006, pp. 127–129.
See Corpus Vol. II, p. 48 and note 42. Bol appraised paintings as an expert on several occasions. He entered the names of the (presumed) artists for most of the paintings in his own inventory, see A. Bredius, ‚Bol’s kunstschatten‘, O.H. 28 (1910), pp. 233–238. He described one of the paintings as ‚een lantschap na Molijn ‘(a landscape after Molijn). Most of Bol’s paintings by Rembrandt cannot be securely identified. Bol seems to have owned both early and late works: ‚een daer Joseph den droom uytleyt, van Rembrandt ‘(a Joseph explaining his dream, by Rembrandt) may be Br. 504, a painting from the 1630s (cf. Corpus II, p. 297), while ‚een besnijdenis van do. ‘(a circumcision by the same [Rem brandt]) is presumably a late work (cf. V 30). Possibly ‚een grafleggingh van Rembrant ‘(an entombment by Rembrandt) is the grisaille sketch in Glasgow (III A 105).
P. Taylor, ‘The Concept of Houding in Dutch Art Theory’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 55 (1992), pp. 210–232.
E. van de Wetering, ‘The miracle of our age: Rembrandt through the eyes of his contemporaries’, in: exhib. cat. Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria/Canberra, National Gallery of Australia, 1997/98, pp. 58–68; Van de Wetering, 1997/2009, Chapter XI.
See also: N. van de Kamp, ‚Genesis: de oergeschiedenis en de verhalen van de aartsvaders‘, in: exhib. cat. Het Oude Testament in de schilder kunst van de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam, Joods Historisch Museum 1991, pp. 24–53, esp. 28-30.
Ph. Angel, Lof der Schilder-Konst, Leiden 1642, p. 47.
J. Smith, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish and French painters…, VII, London 1836, no. 2.
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Van De Wetering, E. (2011). Rembrandt — Abraham serving the angels. In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5786-1_14
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