Rembrandt's Orient (English Edition)

Ortrud Westheider (Hrsg.), Josef Helfenstein (Hrsg.), Bodo Brinkmann (Hrsg.), Michael Philipp (Hrsg.)

Rembrandt's Orient

West meets East in Dutch Art of the 17th Century

In the 17th century, the booming trade with Africa, Asia and the Levant brought new goods, writings and knowledge to the Netherlands. The artists of the Golden Age took up a variety of suggestions, including Rembrandt van Rijn.
In genres as diverse as history or portraiture, he was inspired by Eastern influences, including depictions in which he showed himself in orientalizing clothing.
This richly illustrated catalog examines the extent to which the fascination for the Orient significantly influenced the painting of Rembrandt and his contemporaries. The book consistently locates this artistic development in the context of the commercial and cultural exchange between Holland and its non-European trading partners.

Turbans and carpets, sabers and silk robes - Rembrandt and his contemporaries repeatedly painted objects from distant lands. The resulting works of art provide evidence of the first wave of globalization and reflect the influence of foreign cultures on the Netherlands of the seventeenth century.
This significant art-historical period was shaped by a thirst for knowledge, a passion for collecting and a pride in possession; it also inspired painters to create novel history scenes, portraits, and still lifes.
This catalog examines how the painters of the Dutch Golden Age reacted to the regions of the Middle and Far East, of which they had become increasingly aware through trade, travel, and publication. Foreignness represented an appealing contrast to the familiar, but it hardly aroused a more profound level of sympathy.
Such was the case in the seventeenth century, and this attitude - which this catalog invites us to reflect upon - has not changed in large parts of the Western world.

Hardcover, 328 pages, 266 color illustrations

November 2020