Claudius Civilis 2



This is the second drawing that I did at the Rijksmuseum from Rembrandt’s Oath of the Batavians, or Claudius Civilis. I wanted to spend some time with it, remembering my special interest in the painting when I was younger. This sketch I started at the right side of the composition, to have a look at those figures farther away from Claudius Civilis.

The Batavians were members of a Germanic tribe who lived in what is now the Netherlands.

This lower border of this sketch is irregular because I had originally written notes to the left and right sides of the page, then the drawing expanded into available space. I digitally erased the words, and cleaned up the edges, to make it easier to see the image.

As I was drawing, I had the feeling that the painting was supposed to feel like a real party. The participants, heavy with food and drink, swear an allegiance to act on their common feeling. Several elements suggested this: the lighting on the faces from below; the varied head heights and poses of the figures on the far side of the table; the man silhouetted on our side of the table, bent over and holding a large vessel; the strange, lumpy shape next to this man, probably his coat.

The way the image was painted also contributes to this feeling. Lack of polish or elegance seem appropriate.

I can see how some might have been offended, or disappointed, by the unrefined portrayal of their ancestors. But for art viewers today, it seems particularly regrettable that the painting was rejected, and Rembrandt felt the need to cut it down. In its original format, in its original setting, I imagine a work of engaging, involving depth, a rich meditation on history and life.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Am I Doing This?

Image
Why Am I Doing This? I have decided to write a blog about art and travel. Things that I like to think about, and talk about, tend to fall under these categories, so it seems to make sense. Why am I doing this? One reason has to do with something that contemporary artist Vincent Desiderio has said about art making in general, that it is a process of self-enlightenment for the artist. Bo Bartlett, another major contemporary artist, with whom I had the good fortune to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, spoke of an idea that I think is similar: making art is a way to wake up. But art serves the viewer, as well as the artist. I hope that this blog, like my artwork, may be interesting and useful to other people. I am working to link this to my Facebook account, which will, I hope, help more people see it. This calm little interface on Blogger that I am now using is more to my taste than is the dense web of information that a Facebook page has to offer. So if I
Read more

Birthday

Image
This is a detail of a painting I am working on. That rectangular shape is the start of a birthay cake. My mother made a cake for me when I was three or four, at the end of the 1960's, or five months into the 1970's. There is a photo of me sitting at the table in the apartment my parents were renting on Montgomery Ave. in Ardmore, with my mother standing nearby and another young person, who I cannot now identify, looking off to the left. The photo is square, the original Instagram, but black and white, not murky 70's color.   In this painting I started painting the cake and the white table cloth in green because I felt like it. I wanted to have my feeling supersede any intrinsic requirements the subject may have presented, for the sake of my ongoing connection to my work. Sometimes when this allowance is made surprising connections are made, or depths are revealed that feel true to the subject. And sometimes the self-satisfying decision can just express my feeling, whic
Read more

William Brymner, Girl with a Dog, Lower Saint Lawrence

Image
This is a sketch from William Brymner’s painting Girl with a Dog, Lower Saint Lawrence, from 1905, and a reproduction of the painting.  The piece caught my attention during a visit to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2017. The subject matter was unusual. A girl sits on the sand, or dirt, wearing what I guess was everyday dress in 1905, and holds a stick in front of her dog. Is she restraining the dog from greeting the viewer? Or is she protecting the dog from us? In the painting she has an expression I would describe as angry or frustrated. I find that my sketch adds more sadness. In the original work she faces the viewer more directly. In the painting she is connected to the land by similarity in value and color, and is held down by a horizontal land form in the middle ground. In my sketch I lightened the light on her hat, separating it from its surrounding values and perhaps connecting it more closely to the sky. I like the comma in the title, separating the protago
Read more