Charles M. Rosenberg - Rembrandts Religious Prints: The Feddersen Collection at the Snite Museum of Art

REMBRANDTS

Religious Prints

The Feddersen Collection at the Snite Museum of Art

REMBRANDTS

Religious Prints

CHARLES M. ROSENBERG

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
WITH THE SNITE MUSEUM OF ART,
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

This book is a publication of

Indiana University Press

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2017 by Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Snite Museum of Art, author. | Rosenberg, Charles M., author. | Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 16061669.

Title: Rembrandts religious prints : the Feddersen collection at the Snite Museum of Art / catalog by Charles M. Rosenberg.

Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017004816 (print) | LCCN 2017008806 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253025876 (cl) | ISBN 9780253025906 (eb)

Subjects: LCSH: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 16061669Catalogues raisonns. | BibleIllustrationsCatalogs. | Christian art and symbolismNetherlandsModern period, 1500Catalogs. | Feddersen, Jack, 19131990Art collectionsCatalogs. | Feddersen, Alfrieda, 19121995Art collectionsCatalogs. | EtchingPrivate collectionsIndianaNotre DameCatalogs. | Snite Museum of ArtCatalogs.

Classification: LCC NE2054.5.R4 A4 2017 (print) | LCC NE2054.5.R4 (ebook) | DDC 759.9492dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004816

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CONTENTS

Julia Quinn and Charles M. Rosenberg

Charles M. Rosenberg

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he literature on Rembrandts art in general, and prints in particular, is vast and constantly growing. Two recent publications in the field have been particularly useful in the preparation of this catalog. The first is Shelley Perlove and Larry Silvers magisterial consideration of Rembrandts works with religious themes, Rembrandts Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age (2009). The authors discussion of the iconography of these works is thorough and provocative. Their perceptive interpretations demand serious attention and are therefore addressed in numerous entries throughout this catalog. The second significant recent work is the set of volumes dedicated to Rembrandts prints in The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 14501700 series (2013), compiled by Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, and edited by Ger Luijten. The individual entries by Hinterding and Rutgers include a wealth of information concerning the various states of individual prints, the location of existing impressions, and the history of Rembrandts copperplates, a number of which still survive. In addition, the authors of the New Hollstein volumes have proposed revisions to the previously accepted dating of several works, including a number of those discussed in this catalog. Since their chronology is based not only on stylistic considerations, but also on the more objective criterion of the history of watermarks, it has been adopted here.

The tombstone header for each print in this catalog records the numbers assigned to the work in four standard catalogs of Rembrandts prints: Adam von Bartsch (B.), Catalogue raisonn de toutes les estampes qui forment loeuvre de Rembrandt, 1797; Arthur Hind (H.), A Catalogue of Rembrandts Etchings, 1923; Ludwig Mnz (Mz.), A Critical Catalogue of Rembrandts Etchings, 1952; and Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers, the New Hollstein volumes on Rembrandt cited above (NHD).

Adam von Bartsch arranged his material by subject matter: self-portraits; Old Testament and New Testament subjects; saints; allegorical and fancy subjects; beggars; nudes, and free and mythological subjects; landscapes; portraits of men and studies of unidentified men; studies of women; and miscellaneous subjects. This is the order that is followed in the Snite Museum catalog, which includes one self-portrait and subjects from the Old and New Testaments. However, since Bartsch did not usually list different examples of the same subject, for example the Flight into Egypt, in chronological order, and since it is useful to consider how Rembrandts treatment of a theme changed over time, entries in this catalog have been arranged first by subject and then by date. As a result, there are some deviations from the order found in Bartschs catalog.

The titles of Rembrandts prints are primarily descriptive. This tradition dates back to the seventeenth century, specifically to the sales catalogs of print dealers such as Clement de Jonghe. and which have most recently been utilized by Hinterding and Rutgers in the Rembrandt volumes in The New Hollstein catalog. With very few exceptions, initial articles, e.g., a and the, have been omitted.

Plate dimensions are taken from Hinterding and Rutgerss New Holstein catalog, as is the number of states for each plate. Unless otherwise noted, all prints are on laid paper.

Finally, a project of this scope is not the result of a single individuals work. Over the years, I have benefited from the assistance and expertise of many people, including John Feddersen, Ann Feddersen, David Tunick, Armin Kunz, Julia Quinn, Emily Kretschmer, Eric Huston, Elizabeth Murphy, Paul Crenshaw, Larry Silver, Gary Schwartz, Eva Frojmovic, Roger Kuin, John van Engen, Randall Zachman, Gary Dunham, Carol Kennedy, Nancy Light-foot, Stephen Spiro, Charles Loving, Rebeka Cerevolo, and Cheryl Snay. I am grateful for all of their contributions. Above all, I should like to thank Carol Weiss Rosenberg for her inestimable contributions to this catalog. This project might never have been completed without her patience, editorial acumen, and astute critical insights.

This catalog is published in part with generous support from the Fritz and Mildred Kaeser Endowment for Liturgical Art.

CHARLES M. ROSENBERG
Notre Dame, Indiana

NOTES

. D[ieuwke] de Hoop Scheffer and K[arel] G. Boon, De inventaislijst van Clement de Jonghe en Rembrandts etsplaten, Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis 25 (1971): 117.

. See individual catalog entries for these two prints for a discussion of these titles.

. Christopher White and Karel G. Boon, Rembrandts Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue (Amsterdam: Van Gendt; New York: Abner Schram, [1970]).

CHRONOLOGY OF REMBRANDTS LIFE AND RELIGIOUS PRINTS

This is a chronology of all of Rembrandts religious prints, including those that are not part of the Feddersen collection. If there is no catalog number after the print title, it is not part of the collection.