Noli me Tangere revisited

On Easter Sunday in 2017, I published a post about Noli me tangere - suggested to be the first words words said by Christ on meeting Mary Magdelene in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Latin words 'Noli Me Tangere' mean 'Do not touch me', and refer to the episode of Mary Magdalene's first encounter with Christ after his Resurrection. National Gallery

There have been very many drawings, paintings, fine art prints of the biblical scene of Mary Magdelene recognising Jesus Christ after his resurrection. It's an iconic and artistic motif which has continued for centuries. 

On this Easter Morning I've reprised the post:

• Today I've found the images (mainly in Wikimedia Commons) and put them in an album on my Facebook Page - with the details of each image from the original blog post.
• plus I've found a new image - by two past masters of Netherlandish art

Artworks have been produced by very many notable artists. My blog post documented various of the artworks in chronological order. They include: Giotto, Duccio, Fra Angelico, Memling, Botticelli, Dürer, Titian, Holbein, Poussin, Lorrain

This is an additional - and unusual - image. It was painted by BOTH Jan Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens did the figures and Brueghel did the landscape and plants. One interesting aspect is that Christ is portrayed as a gardener and while flowers are still in bloom the vegetables are ready to be harvested— which I gather is an allusion to Paradise.

Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene on Easter Morning (Noli me tangere) c. 1626
Jan Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens
59.0 x 100.0cm, oil on wood
Kunsthalle Bremen - Der Kunstverein in Bremen

In addition, this Wikimedia Commons Category:Paintings of Noli me tangere has the paintings ordered by century in date order.

Rembrandt, Vermeer and Reynolds at Kenwood House

I walked from Hampstead tube station and across Hampstead Heath up to Kenwood House to see the art collection yesterday. A bit of culture with a great cafe and a nice walk thrown in is my kind of ideal day out!

I haven't been to Kenwood House in years and years but my other half had visited more recently and suggested the venue for our weekly "day out".

Which is how I came to be pictured with Rembrandt - by himself!

Me - writing a Facebook post about Rembrandt and Vermeer
in the Drawing Room of Kenwood House

Kenwood House was bought by Lord Iveagh (Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh 1847-1927) to save it from development. It subsequently became a place to display his amazing art collection - which was bequeathed to the nation on his death.

This was the most generous bequest of art in history - and was conditional on it being on display in the house for free!

On the left: The Guitar Player by Vermeer
On the right: Self Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt

It includes:

Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with Two Circles. READ ABOUT IT

Painted in around 1665, it was first reproduced as a print in the mid 18th century and was publicly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in1877. As a consequence it was a famous and celebrated artwork when Lord Iveagh purchased it on 10 July 1888.

Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with Two Circles

I'm the sort of visitor who always likes to get a close-up of the brush marks!

Vermeer's  The Guitar Player

"....one of only 36 known paintings by Vermeer, an artist who specialised in depicting everyday life in domestic interiors. A young girl, possibly his daughter Maria, is interrupted from her guitar playing, as the string continues to vibrate. Vermeer has seated the girl so far to the left that her arm is cropped by the edge of the painting."

The Guitar Player by Vermeer

PLUS a very large collection of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Franz Hals, Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney and Albert Cuyp - amongst others.

There is in fact an exhibition which focuses on all the paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds who was Lord Iveagh's favourite artist - and who is celebratig his 300th anniversary of his birth in 2023.

Some of you will remember Reynolds as the chap whose statue is in the area in front of the Royal Academy of Arts as Reynolds was the very first President of the RA (Note: I find it really very sad that the entry for Reynolds on the RA website spends MORE space and text on the "RA Collections Decolonial Research Project - Extended Case Study" than it does on Reynolds and what he did and why he was important. There is something very wrong when perspectives on the past get this distorted.)

Speaking personally, I'm not so much a fan of Reynolds. While I do not doubt his skill as a painter, I find some of his paintings very whimsical. Apparently he was nearly as bad as Turner for trying to develop new ways to paint - which cause his paintings to be something of a challenge on the conservation front.

Margaret Hyde "Daisy" Leiter (1898)

who became Margaret Howard, Countess of Suffolk

by John Singer Sargent

I very much liked the John Singer Sargent painting on the Deal Staircase of the Margaret Hyde Leiter, Countess of Suffolk who it is suggested was the sister of Mary Leitner - the role model for Lady Cora, the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey - an American who married Lord Curzon who became Viceroy of India!

It seems there's a bit of a tradition for Americans marrying into the aristocracy!

Looking for Rembrandt - on BBC4 in April

BBC4 is marking the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's death by telling his story from how own perspective - despite the fact he fell on hard times towards the end of his life and left no diaries and fewer than 10 letters!

crop of a Self-portrait c. 1628 by Rembrandt van Rijn, (painted age 22)
oil on panel, h 22.6cm × w 18.7cm
It's an experiment with light - and his curls are drawn in the wet paint with the butt end of his paintbrush

Looking for Rembrandt

Looking for Rembrandt is a BBC Four documentary told in 3 one hour episodes starting Tuesday 9th April. It's uniques insofar that the story is told via fragments of information about him in:

• Amsterdam’s civic and legal archives
• his 90 self-portraits
• his many different paintings, etchings, and drawings

It will have a curious cast of characters providing information - including art collectors, art restorers, hand surgeons, security consultants, insolvency lawyers, novelists, curators and graffiti artists. 

The actor Toby Jones provides the voice of the artist as the series explores how such a great artist who was at one point the darling of Dutch high society could finally end up buried as a poor man in an unknown grave in the Westerkerk.

Critical questions are addressed:

• How could an artist made rich by the patronage of Amsterdam’s wealthiest elite come to declare bankruptcy? 
• Why did he fall out of favour at a time when he was painting his greatest masterpieces?

In the first of three episodes we learn how Rembrandt arrived in Amsterdam ‘like a thunderclap’ and was courted by the city’s wealthy elite, before falling into conflict with the city’s most powerful patrons. Jones explores the highs and lows of Rembrandt’s personal life too: from the new-found riches enjoyed with his wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, to the tragedies that unfolded before him, leading to some of his most celebrated work.

Self-portrait, Etching at a Window, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1648
etching, h 160mm × w 130mm

Biography of Rembrandt

There's also a new biography of Rembrandt by Jonathan Bikker the curator of the new exhibition All the Rembrants at the Rijkmuseum

In Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel, takes us on a journey past all of the ups and downs of Rembrandt’s life in seventeenth century Leiden and Amsterdam. With humour, insight and compassion, he shows us Rembrandt’s genius and the novelty of his works, and brings the artist back to life – you will not get any closer to Rembrandt than this.

Title: Rembrandt: Biography of a Rebel
Author: Jonathan Bikker
Design: Irma Boom
Price: €25
ISBN: Dutch 9789462084742
English: 9789462084759

Available from the Rijksmuseum online store

Rembrandt - a case study in light and dark

Google Art and Culture is currently displaying a very interesting case study in the portrayal of light and dark in a painting by Rembrandt.

A Case Study of Light and Dark is a slideshow which highlights - in detail and close up - how Rembrandt conveys both light and dark

• in different places within a portrait 
• relative to the light source and 
• relative to the form and local colour of the subject.

Do take a look - I know some with find it VERY educational. For others it's an excellent refresher of what we already know but maybe sometimes forget!

The painting is a Bust of an old man with turban (1627 - 1628) by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn from The Kremer Collection

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PS You may have noticed I'm posting shorter posts borrowing from other sites. That's because it's Christmas and I have other "things to do"! :)  Future posts will be similar and/or will display paintings of the season or Christmas.