ART

SHOPPING MALL > DEPARTMENT STORE > ART > ART HISTORY

COMPARISON SHOPPING SEARCH ENGINE

Fine Art Prints

Best Sellers Art Prints

Sale Art Prints

Limited Edition Art Prints

Buy Modern Art Prints, Fine Art Prints, Framed Art Prints and Art Prints Posters.

Select the first letter of the artist's last name to search the Fine Art Prints: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN
The Feast of Belshazzar: The Writing on the Wall(c. 1635)
Oil on canvas, 167cm X 209cm/ 66in X 82 1/3in

Rembrandt never visited Italy but by the time he left his native Leyden to settle in Amsterdam in 1631 he had already been exposed to the latest developments in Baroque painting, The Dutch followers of Caravaggio had ensured that the thunderous use of light and shade and dramatic figures filling the picture surface had become familiar, as had the fluid, vigorous brushwork of Rubens and the thirst for grand, painterly illusions. Like Rubens, Rembrandt would have noted that Titian in his late work had gone in search of more reflective moods and discovered a new and glorious freedom in his brushstrokes.

Of all the Baroque masters, it was Rembrandt who evolved the most revolutionary technique and who seemed to grow into Titian's spiritual heir. By the middle of the 1630s he had long since abandoned conventional Dutch smooth-ness and his surfaces were already caked with more paint than was strictly necessary to present an illusion. He was weighing his sitters with jewelry solid enough to steal, vigorously modelled with a heavily loaded brush. Where others needed five touches he was using one. and so the brushstrokes had begun to separate and could sometimes only be properly read from a distance. The exact imitation of form was being replaced by the suggestion of it: to some of his ... contemporaries, therefore, his paintings began to look unfinished. It was from the Venetians that he had learned to use a brown ground so that his paintings emerged from dark to light, physically as well as spiritually. Yet, despite a palette that was limited even by seventeenth century standards, he was re-nowned as a colorist for he managed to maintain a precarious balance between paint-ing tonally. with light and shade, and painting in color. Just as form was suggested rather i than delineated, so the impression of rich ! color was deceptive.

He worked in complex layers, building up a picture from the back to the front with delicate glazes that allowed light actually to permeate his backgrounds and reflect off the white i underpainting. and generously applied bodv-colors which mimicked the effect of solid I bodies in space. Never before had a painter taken such a purely sensuous interest and delight in the physical qualities of his medium. nor granted it a greater measure of indepen-1 dence from the image.

This is the most overtly theatrical of Rembrandt's biblical scenes. Not one, but two goblets of wine are spilling their contents and the great jewelled clasp on Belshazzar's cloak is the artist's most extravagant attempt at recreating jewelry in thick, wet impasto. The picture's predominantly green-gray coloration is dictated by the underpainting, the most crucial component of a Rembrandt painting. It takes the place of a preliminary sketch and also plays an important role in the appearance of the finished painting, providing the bulk of his intermediate tones. Underpainting provides the basic color for Belshazzar's tunic, the tablecloth, the clouds of smoke in the background and the shadowy figure of the musician.

Cheap Posters

ART

SHOPPING MALL > DEPARTMENT STORE > ART > ART HISTORY

Shopping Mall : Art Gallery, Fine Art Collection, Art History, Art Supply & Art Print

ART Category: Art, Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art

Shopping Mall: Art Store offers Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art

ART Topics: Art, Arts, Fantasy Art, Wildlife Art, Art Gallery, Fine Art, Art History, Art Print, Digital Art, Art Supply, African Art, 3d Art, Poster Art, Cartoon Art, Nude Art, Art Wall, Religious Art