Four of Rembrandt’s earliest works, painted when the Dutch artist was just 18 or 19, are on display together at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where they will be exhibited until November 27.The four works, which come from the series “Five Senses” — a common subject matter for artists in Europe at the time — are all allegories of sensations. They represent hearing, touch, smell, and sight; according to a press release, “clearly the work of a young artist who is still developing his own style,” though “these works show great promise and glimpses of the celebrated painter that Rembrandt would become, in his bold use of bright colors and broad brushwork.”A fifth painting, which depicts taste, is presumed lost. The exhibition features a blank frame in its place, both to commemorate the missing work and to act as a stimulus for visitors to imagine its contents. In fact, until 2015, only three of the five were thought to exist, before the painting now known as “Unconscious Painting (Allegory of Smell)” was found in a basement in New Jersey. It was up for auction with an estimate of $500, before the suspicions of experts regarding the painting’s provenance led to a bidding war all the way up to $870,000.This work forms part of a mini-series with “Stone Operation (Allegory of Touch),” with both featuring medical procedures: the former presents a patient either being put to sleep or awoken using a rag drenched in the stench of certain chemicals, while the latter is a flinch-inducing surgical scene. The other senses are represented by “Three Singers” and “A Pedlar Selling Spectacles.”The works provide a contrast with the typical depiction of the five senses. Rembrandt often painted negative sensations, far removed from the idealized works by other painters; for instance, Rembrandt shows metal entering flesh in his touch allegory, whereas Hans Makart portrays a young nude woman fingering fabric whilst holding her infant child. As such, the revolutionary figure that Rembrandt would become can clearly be seen (as well as felt, heard, tasted) in these four works on display in Oxford.“Sensation: Rembrandt’s First Paintings” runs through November 27 at the Ashmolean Museum.
↧