Lucretia of Rembrandt - Essay Example

 Lucretia of Rembrandt Lucretia was painted on oil on canvas by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn in 1666 in Netherlands. According to the Roman historian Livy (The Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Lucretia, the wife of a Roman nobleman, was known for her virtue and loyalty. She was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the ruling tyrant. The next day Lucretia revealed the crime to her husband and father and, in their presence, took her own life, choosing death over dishonour. Rembrandt used the story of Lucretia as the subject for two of his most moving paintings in which he represented two moments in the tragedy of Lucretia's suicide. The first version, painted in 1664 and in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, depicts Lucretia just before she takes her life. This second version, painted in 1666, portrays Lucretia moments after she had plunged the knife into her heart. What follows is a discussion of the composition and technique used in Rembrandt’s 1666 Lucretia. It includes such factors as placing, pose and expression of the figure, the use of colour, tonal range, and lighting effects. Finally, it ends with Rembrandt’s treatment of the female virtue. Placing. In the world of art, the technique of tenebrism  is used in this painting.  Tenebrism refers to a stark contrast of dark and light shades within a painting such as utilized in Lucretia.  Rembrandt places Lucretia in the foreground of the painting and sets her against a dark background.  Lucretia then appears jumping out or moving into the viewer's space.  As such Rembrandt involves the viewer, which helps convey the dramatic and emotionally wrenching scene. Pose and expression of the figure. Rembrandt's excellent attention to detail allows the viewer to observe the intricate designs on Lucretia. The model is dressed in a decorative, highly stylized dress indicating enormous wealth. The head of Lucretia is bent to one side and lowered a little as though in shame and in anguish. At the left portion of her white robe is a long streak of dripped blood. The white robe appears slashed beyond comfortable length in the middle of her bosom, indicating unwelcome hands. On the weighty left hand of Lucretia, she holds a string hanging from higher space as though just by a slight pull she would be lifted up in deathly space. Round her neck is the ready loop of the noose. On her right hand is a dagger pointed to herself, ready to harm. From just the sight of blood stains, however, she might as well have already cut herself to death and is slowly dying. There is an expressed effort to die by all means in Lucretia. Meanwhile, the face is that of loneliness and resignation from life. She appears to have cried so much in her despair. Use of colour. There is a fantastic element of colour coordination throughout this painting of Rembrandt. The colour of the rope, her fluffy white silk cuffs, her silky blouse, and her golden jewellery shows continuity of colour. Tonal range. Tone is important to painting, perhaps even more than color. Tone is how light or dark a color is, rather than what the actual color is. Implementing tone in a painting is often bothersome to artists because people get distracted by the strong appeal of color. The master of color, Henri Matisse, said (in his A Painter's Notes, 1908): "When I have found the relationship of all the tones, the result must be a living harmony of all the tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition." In other words, if a painting is going to be successful, the artist must get his tones right, otherwise it's just going to be visual noise. In Lucretia, Rembrandt had no problem about tonal range. Every element went in harmony with each other. Lighting effects. There are tricky details with lighting effects such as the falling cushion and pearls, caught symbolically in Lucretia's shift. Movement is downward as though expressing some undressing not by the subject but by an outside force that is not welcome. The cushion is suggestively foreign to the woman-subject as it is masculine with its stiff, wide collar, broad shoulders, and earthly tan colour. The shadows fall on Lucretia’s left face, making it more mysterious of the woman seemingly carrying much weight in her sorrow. The artist in Rembrandt uses shadows to add mystery, depth, and character to his paintings. Life is much like that where everything is not exposed and not everything can be perceived by the senses. Rembrandt’s treatment of the female virtue. The female virtues in Lucretia as painted by Rembrandt includes the dagger used to symbolize quick preservation of honor, the rope in her left hand and the noose round her neck which threaten ending one’s life if violated. Rembrandt as an artist did not present Lucretia as nude or semi-nude unlike those European painting of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for a reason. His treatment of suicide as a subject is more realistic than others since a virtuous woman would not, even after being raped, cherish exposing her body. Not even a rape can make a virtuous woman throw caution to the winds and say, what good is this body now? Therefore, Rembrandt had the subject fully dressed. Rembrandt then preserves the true character of the woman so virtuous that a rape would be so much in contrast to her nature and is revolting. A rape to this woman would not just mean a right taken away from her, but something greater than life. Among women, virtuosity is looked upon invariably from many angles, just as men would view virtuosity from their own. The rapist of Lucretia clearly shows that he knows virtuosity is important to people, especially with the husband of Lucretia who would brag about his wife’s virtuosity. The rapist then tries to take away that priced thing and he succeeds in doing so. The rapist knows that he can succeed in blocking the future braggart in Lucretia’s husband which perhaps he so disdains. Rembrandt effectively sends a message about this issue and arouses debate in society about rape. Men like to brag about their wives as though virtue is found only in keeping one’s virginity or in guarding one’s organ. He also shows the vulnerability of women and the irresponsible acts that men can do to the opposite sex. Men expect that women be chaste, obedient, and devout to the husband, but this expectation is not found when it comes to the male gender. Men are generally thought of as strong and women as weak, but as Rembrandt’s Lucretia shows, women can be strong and men can be weak. The behaviour of Lucretia, for example, shows strength in chastity and constancy despite her physical weakness in being overcome by a male. She, in the end, proves she can be a strong woman in character, against the backdrop of a corrupt, physically-strong male out to violate her person. Rembrandt’s Lucretia, however, goes beyond being an ideal role model for females because of the element of suicide. Although it would mean preserving one’s honour, it would not be so in the eyes of the Maker. Only the one who gave life has the right to take it. The element of suicide aside and the suggestion that it makes, Rembrandt’s Lucretia speaks a lot on contemporary social issues that have to be resolved. Rembrandt does this effectively through his excellent composition and the techniques that he used. Read More