Rembrandt's reading : the artist's bookshelf of ancient poetry and history

292 Pages·2003·43.253 MB·English

by  Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Golahny, Amy, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

A amy golahny
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lthough rembrandt’s study of
the Bible has long been recognized as intense, his ee
interest in secular literature has been relatively am
neglected. Yet Philips Angel (1641) praised d
b
Rembrandt for “diligently seeking out the knowledge of histo-
ries from old musty books.” Amy Golahny elaborates on this ir
n
observation, reconstructing Rembrandt's library on the evi-
a
dence of the 1656 inventory and discerning anew how Rem-
g
n
brandt’s reading of histories contributed to his creative pro-
cess. Golahny places Rembrandt in the learned vernacular cul-
d
ture of seventeenth-century Holland and shows the painter to
have been a pragmatic reader whose attention to historical t
texts strengthened his early rivalry with Rubens for visual ’s rembrandt’s
drama and narrative erudition.
Amy Golahny has written numerous articles on and around Rem-
brandt, and edited a book on the reciprocity of poetry and painting, reading
The Eye of the Poet (1996).
She earned her doctorate at Columbia
isbn 90 5356 609 0
University, and is professor of art
history at Lycoming College,
The Artist’s Bookshelf of
Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
www.aup.nl 9 789053 566091 Ancient Poetry and History
amsterdam university press amsterdam university press
rembrandt’s reading

amy golahny
rembrandt’s
reading
The Artist’s Bookshelf of
Ancient Poetry and History
amsterdam university press
The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the Historians of Netherlandish Art.
Cover design and lay out Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam
Cover illustration Rembrandt, Artemisia,1634.
isbn 9053566090
nur 640
© Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2003
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
table of contents
9 Acknowledgments
13 preface
The Scope of the Study
chapter 1
Book Culture
17
19 The Image of the Reader in Rembrandt’s Art
24 Rembrandt as Rag-picker and Book-hunter?
25 The Ubiquitous Book
29 The Humanist Library and its Organization
34 The Process of Reading
36 Reading to Illustrate:
Rembrandt’s Ship of Fortuneand Medea
42 Observations on Literary Theory and Painting
46 Rembrandt’s Judas
chapter 2
Rembrandt’s Training
49
51 Academic Studies
59 Rembrandt’s Apprenticeship to Jacob van Swanenburgh
64 Pieter Lastman: Pedantic Literacy
72 Rembrandt’s Scholarly Acquaintances
5
chapter 3
75 Rembrandt‘s Bookshelf Part i
77 The 1656Inventory and its 22 Books in the Breestraat House
81 Callot’s Gants Jerusalem
88 Dürer’s proportie boeck
chapter 4
97 Rembrandt’s Bookshelf Part iI
“15 books in various sizes”
99 Rembrandt’s Proserpina: Visual Rhetoric from
Claudian and Scaliger
105 Amorous Myths from Ovid
114 Reading Homer: Vulcan’s Net
122 The Historical Homer: Poet and Teacher
129 Artemisia: Devotion in Body and Soul
chapter 5
135 Rembrandt’s Bookshelf Part iII
German Folios
138 A Confrontation: Popilius Laenas and Antiochus
147 Livy as a Studio Resource: Lucretia, Scipio, Dido
164 Stimmer’s Josephus
chapter 6
Rembrandt’s Later Imagery
181
After the 1656 Inventory
184 The Amsterdam Town Hall
187 The Oath of Civilis
191 A Case of Kindness: Pyrrhus
199 Defying Mortality: Zeuxis Laughing
6 rembrandt’s reading
chapter 7
Artists’ libraries
207
Practicality and Universality
218 Avoiding Error: Advice to the Artist
230 An Essential Reading List
237 Rembrandt’s Library Concluded
243 notes
262 bibliography
275 Illustration Acknowledgments
278 index
table of contents 7

acknowledgments
My interest in Rembrandt’s reading was prompted by Arnold Hou-
braken’s seemingly contradictory statements that artists ought not to
“bury their noses in books,” yet ought to know histories well. After all,
the craft of painting demanded expertise in the practice of art, not in
the study of texts. I wondered how little Rembrandt needed to read in
order to draw, paint, and etch his subjects from ancient poetry and his-
tory. In May 1996, I began to develop a limited reading list for Rem-
brandt. I have been fortunate to conduct research at the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, the Butler and Avery Libraries of
Columbia University, the New York Public Library, The Special
Collections of The Pennsylvania State University Library, Biblioteca
Nazionale Firenze, Universiteitsbibliotheek Amsterdam, Koninklijke
Bibliotheek, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Rijksbureau voor Kunst-
historische Documentatie, Rijksprentenkabinet, The British Library,
University of Michigan, The Warburg Institute, Bibliothèque Natio-
nale, Fondation Custodia, Louvre, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes,
Herzog August Bibliothek, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Berlin
Kupferstichkabinett, and the Staatliche Graphischesammlung, Munich.
The staffs of these libraries and museums generously and patiently
filled my requests. At Lycoming College, Tasha Cooper, Rose Di-
Rocco, Cathleen Hurwitz, Georgia Laudenslager, Marlene Neece, and
Gail Spencer provided invaluable support with interlibrary loans and
many other queries.
This project was greatly aided by funding from several sources.
In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities facilitated my
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