Philadelphia Baedeker: Rembrandt And The Face Of Jesus Opens Today At PMA; The Shore Beckons

      

By: Joann Loviglio, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) 

A new exhibit coming to the Philadelphia Museum of Art takes a fresh look at religious paintings, drawings and prints by one of history's most revered artists.

        "Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" debuts Wednesday in Philadelphia, after its three-month premiere run at the Louvre Museum in Paris. It's the only East Coast stop for the exhibit, which continues through Oct. 30 and contains works from public and private collections in the U.S. and Europe.

          The exhibition of more than 50 works by the Dutch master and his pupils notably includes a group of oil paintings of Jesus Christ that have not been seen together since they left Rembrandt's Amsterdam studio in 1656.

          Timothy Rub, chief executive officer and director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, called the show "a rare moment to observe the image of Jesus through the imagination of this artistic genius whose life was devoted to representations of biblical truths."

        Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) revolutionized the artistic portrayal of biblical themes, which for more than 1,000 years rigidly represented Christ as an unemotional and formalized figure. These "true" images of Jesus were copied from ancient prototypes, in part to avoid violating the Second Commandment that forbids idolatry, until Rembrandt broke with time-honored artistic convention and began using live models.

          Still more radical was his use of a model who many historians believe was a Jewish man likely from Rembrandt's Amsterdam neighborhood — where many Sephardic Jews settled after fleeing the Iberian Peninsula during the Inquisition. In the seven reunited oil on oak panel paintings that are the cornerstone of the exhibit, Rembrandt's young model conveys a variety of thoughtful gazes that bring him to life in a way no artist had done before — and departs from the then-customary depiction of him as sandy haired and fair skinned.

         "This was very likely the first time in the history of Christian art that Jesus appeared to be Jewish," curator Lloyd De Witt said. He added that seeing all of the works together provides ample evidence for "moving this previously marginalized group of panels back to the center of a discussion about Rembrandt's theology, spirituality and expressive power."

          Rembrandt used at least two of the small "Head of Christ" portraits as sources for later paintings now recognized as among his greatest works: "Supper at Emmaus" — last seen in the U.S. in 1936 — and "The Hundred Guilder Print," also on view in the exhibition.


"Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus" will make its final stop at the Detroit Institute of Arts from Nov. 20 until Feb. 12


NOTE:  If you believe you can face the Demi-Hell of Philadelphia in the summer, you should hustle on up, down or across to view and re-view what sounds like a marvelous exhibition of paintings at our great Philadelphia Museum of Art.  By late September, the weather will cool down a bit and you might think of supplementing your trip with an excursion to the southern New Jersey beaches (Avalon, Stone Harbor or Cape May), where it's Heaven On Earth through at least mid-October.

Soul Deep (A Day At The Philadelphia Museum)

 

        I made the acquaintance of this German vise (ca. 1500) two days ago at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

        We spent several hours at PMA on Saturday, while Jane was in Puerto Rico, and for reasons I can’t be entirely sure about (the quality of light that day?, rearrangements in the galleries?, mood and state of mind?), it was my most enjoyable visit there in a very long time, and had some of the unexpected and appealing qualities of the first Night At The Museum movie, i.e., there was a palpable feeling of life, animation and expectant greeting in the artworks, which set aside usual "casting" priority relationships and found typically supporting player pieces (like this vise) sometimes assuming leading roles. 

        As additional examples, please see Pablo Picasso's marvelous small  Owl sculpture (1950)  above, perched on its lintel in a high corner of one of the Cubist galleries, or Andre Masson's Italian Postcard (1925) below, in its exquisite and unique wooden frame by Pierre Legrain.  Italian Postcard is an odd, uncharacteristic example of Masson's work, obviously derivative of major Cubist painting, but accomplished and affecting nonetheless (especially seen in conjunction with its wooden surround and in proper lighting showing its rich and subtle coloring, rather than the washed-out, slightly denatured image presented here). Viewed in person, the painting clearly anticipates Masson's more effectively inward-outward mature works.

        

        I wish I could find an illustration of the German craftsman Urban Holtzwarm's ca. 1500 massive, but elegant wooden door frame with black metal jambs and ornaments. Set into the museum's ochre walls, it is an image of what I believe my mind looks like on its (rare) best days.  I can show, however, below PMA's newly acquired Grant Wood chalk and charcoal (with small amounts of painting) drawing, Plowing (1936), an impressive American dreamscape, and another new acquisition, Juan Gris' 1909-10 charcoal Self-Portrait No. 1, a small work that on Saturday stood out among the impressive company of Cezannes, Monets, Manets, Braques and Brancusis, for its gravity, truth, skill and promise of the greatness that lay ahead.

         

        Five well-known works, all famous masterpieces, obviously, kept me up most of the night thinking in bed after our revisit.  Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Mademoiselle Legrand (1875) affected me both as someone who loves Renoir's painting (especially following intervals away from it) and as a lonely father missing his daughter badly. Renoir's Les Grands Boulevards (1875) prompts hope for life in an eternal Paris in springtime or summer of the mind, as well as regret for a New York City that seems lost forever.

          

        Rogier van der Weyden's 1460 Crucifixion and Thomas Eakins' 1880 Crucifixon both serve to remind of the conventions and artifice of painting, and the intersections of realism and abstraction, while powerfully and dramatically presenting their important subject.

 

        Along with Peter Paul Rubens' Prometheus Bound (1611-18), they also remind and state in certain terms what great vision, surpassing talent and supreme achievement are, i.e., how good good needs to be before we are compelled to recognize its quality.  (They and the other works featured here also remind how lucky one is to live in the neighborhood of a world-class museum of art.) 

         

        Bob Dylan wrote perceptively in Visions of Johanna: "inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial/voices echo 'this is what salvation must be like after a while'".  Saturday's visit to Philadelphia Museum seemed to indicate that infinity continues to make a convincing case for its existence. I am grateful for this, small gnat-like impediments like Bruce Nauman's 1967 neon work  The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), a fairly recent PMA acquisition,  notwithstanding.