Gazing Across the Centuries
Vincent van Gogh made eye-contact with Rembrandt, a Dutch Master 200 years his senior. It changed him, just as it changes us…
Vincent van Gogh said, “Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language,” and he learnt to, “exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague...”
When one thinks of the self-portrait as an art-form, in itself, there are two names that most readily spring to mind. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) may be credited with introducing it as a discipline, but chances are that the two painters most famous for their serial self-portraits are Rembrandt (Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669) and Vincent (van Gogh, 1853-1890).
Rembrandt and Vincent both developed daring styles that were out-of-pace with their times, and both managed to delve below the surface, allowing a glimpse of something deeper. Call it the ‘self’ or, perhaps, the ‘soul’? There’s something about their painted eyes. They seem to stare back at us, seeing our similarities and differences. By doing so, they make us consider ourselves more deeply, too.
Most Baroque paintings convey a fascination with how light reveals the details of a scene, lifting form out of its surrounding darkness. This tended to be approached…
