Christ Preaching or La Petite Tombe Term Paper

Christ Preaching or La Petite Tombe

Christ Preaching by Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn was a prolific artist from seventeenth century, producing at least six hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and two thousand drawings. His works are known for being dramatic and devoid of the formality that was common among his contemporaries. Rembrandt was born in The Netherland, and later achieved fame in Amsterdam. Having studied at the University of Leiden and as an apprentice under Jacob van Leiden, he opened his own studio by the age of twenty-one, and began taking on his own students. Marriage into a wealthy family brought him into social circles where his work was held in high esteem. After his wife's death, Rembrandt had a child out of wedlock and he was given an official reprimand by the church. Despite "living in sin," Rembrandt's work was often of religious or biblical content. One of his etchings, known as Christ Preaching or The Hundred Guilder Print, is a piece of particular memorability because it is visually stunning, a brilliant interpretation of Biblical verses, and also demonstrates the true mastery of printmaking techniques, a field in which Rembrandt surpassed all other artists of his era.

The Hundred Guilder Print of Christ Preaching was printed around 1649. It is an etching, printed with drypoint and burin, on Japanese paper. It measures 28.1 cm by 38.9 cm, and it was trimmed just inside the plate line. The actual work produced by Rembrandt was an etched plate made of copper for use in printing, therefore he was able to create many duplicates of his work. There are different printings of this piece still surviving today, and many of them were printed in this style with Japanese paper. The choice of this type of paper enhanced the quality of the piece. Every printing done by Rembrandt was slightly different because he applied the ink to the etching by hand, and pressed the paper in different ways. The choice of the Japanese paper, which is an earth-tone rather than white, helps soften the lines of the piece and create a less stark contrast between the blacks and whites. Rembrandt was one of the first Western artists to use this kind of paper, which may have been because it made the etching seem more like a painting than a print. The paper additionally kept the lines of the drawing clear and crisp because the smooth surface of this kind of paper does not absorb the ink. The ink remains on the surface. It is additionally an optimal paper type to use for printings of this sort because the surface is soft, therefore the printing press does not have to apply very much pressure. This is important because the less pressure used for each print, the longer the etching will last, because they wear out the lines in the copper over time.

The people in the painting are representative of Christ's activities in Judea, from the Gospel of St. Matthew. The Christ is the central figure, standing calm and in a position of blessing the crowd, standing on an altar that lifts him above every other figure in the etching. He is slightly to the left of the etching, which not only gives the piece more movement instead of the stationary feel it would have if the central figure was in the exact center of the picture, but also gives the piece a good flow of energy. The right of the room is very crowded and claustrophobic, while the crowd dissipates as it pans to the right of the image, and finally reaching the doorway which opens to the outside. He is a unifying force for the rest of the somewhat chaotic and very full room, standing like a god among…