倫勃朗作品有哪些藝術特色？

幾個月前的essay，以倫勃朗的《夜巡》為例，critical thinking的角度寫的。懶得翻譯中文了，用機翻看吧，通俗易懂哈哈哈。

The Night Watch is a group portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn. It was painted in 1642 and its real name is Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. It is the largest (h 379.5cm × w 453.5cm × w 337kg) and most famous painting of Rembrandt and today it has become the best known collection in the Rijksmuseum. He was the first person to draw the figures in a militia company in action (Rijksmuseum). It is hard to know the creativity in this painting intuitively. According to Moon (2008), critical thinking would seem to be a gathering of various processes such as understanding, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and so on. So critical thinking is a good way to get more information and understand Rembrandt』s creativity. Using The Night Watch as a text and discussing the new style and new skills in this painting, this essay is an attempt to gain better understanding of Rembrandt』s creativity through critical thinking.

A creative artist should create different works from others. Rembrandt』s perception of motion in The Night Watch is a new style for portraiture. Comparing with other similar portraits, for example, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy』s Civic guards from the company of captain Jacob Backer and lieutenant Jacob Rogh in 1632 (Amsterdam of Historical Museum) and Frans Hals』s In The Banquet of The Officers of The St George Militia Company in 1616 (Frans Hals Museum), The Night Watch is extraordinary because of its originality. Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy and Frans Hals painted the portraits like a group of students taking a graduation photo, all standing or sitting in line waiting for the photographer to take the snap. At that time, the position on the painting was bought by the customer, not by the artist himself. However, The Night Watch looks like a dynamic instant scene captured by a journalist. Schaller (2015) expressed that Rembrandt brought his portraits to life rather than copying the classic arrangement of boring rows of figures. As Prodger (2019) described, The Night Watch depicts such a scene that the militiamen loaded their wagons and prepared their weapons, as if they were about to face a strong enemy. Weisberg (2006) made a point that an innovative product or creation should be new to an individual. The Night Watch is this kind of work and its motion makes it stand out from so many still portraits in the Dutch Golden Age.

Creative artists have the ability to improve the relationship between a work of art and its audience. Generally, knowledgeable people can extract more information when they see a text at the first time(Weisberg, 2006). People need to get some basic information before they can appreciate the painting such as Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy』s Civic guards from the company of captain Jacob Backer and lieutenant Jacob Rogh in 1632 (Amsterdam of Historical Museum) or they can hardly know the identities of the different figures in the painting. However, in The Night Watch, even those with little knowledge of art could identify the main characters and capture some details in a short time due to his use of light and shadow. Rembrandt found an creative way to use his light and shadow technology. He pioneered the use of light and shadow on theatrical stage in this painting, allowing light to guide the audience. Their attention is gazed and framed by the systems of light (O』Toole, 2003). He made the contrast of the light and shadow in the painting very clear，like a spotlight on the main character on a theatrical stage. Although some viewers have no knowledge about this militia company, they could identify the two men in the middle as the leaders of the military company due to his use of light. Rembrandt use his dramatic lighting to improve the emotional atmosphere of the work by his dramatic lighting (Prodger, 2019). As the relationship between light and dark changes,from the light to the shadow, viewers will gradually notice minor characters and details in this painting, such as the names of all the members of the military company written on the shield. This was the new experience Rembrandt brought to the viewer with his creative light and shadow technology.

Critical thinking is 『thoughtful』 thinking. It starts with an expectation that the received wisdom may not be correct or the only valid view (Moon, 2008). The Night Watch depicts the captain Frans Banninck Cocq and vice-captain Willem van Ruytenburch leading their company to move out in the daytime, which is mistaken for night due to dim and defaced surface. According to Wallace (1969), the canvas was so dark with dust and layers of varnish that it was hard to tell the illumination in this painting came from the sun or the moon. It was not until after World War II that this painting was restored, so that viewers could see how bright it was more than 300 years ago. For hundreds of years it was called the night watch, and no one ever doubt the 『night』. Without critical thinking, all the viewers made judgments only by intuition and made the wrong name The Night Watch more famous than its real name.

The value of artwork has always been controversial. Painting for money makes it difficult for artists to be creative and achieve artistic success. The value of a painting would also be measured by money in some situations like trading. The market determines the commercial value of artworks through multiple factors and these rules also affect people』s collective consciousness of the concept of art value (Findlay, 2014). These collective consciousness will affect the painters creation to some extent because most artists make money by meeting customers』 requirements.Rembrandt once said that a work of art is finished only when the master has realized his intentions. Despite financial problems in his later years, Rembrandt continued to paint in his own style, rather than catering to the market (Prodger, 2019). As Weisberg (2006) emphasized, there is no guarantee that any products that we value today, including Rembrandt』s paintings, will be valued by future generations. But the creativity in it will never change.

This essay has shown Rembrandt』s creativity of the perception of motion and his use of light and shadow. It also shows people』s intuitive reception of The Night Watch and the understanding of Rembrandt』s creativity. Although the basis of judging values changes over time, the creativity of the artists will always be contained in those works of art. And using critical thinking is a useful way to gain better understanding of their creativity.

下面是修復到不同程度的《夜巡》所顯現出來的光影效果。

上面這兩條白線外面的部分就是《夜巡》原作被剪裁掉的部分。

下面這個是文中提到的同時代的Frans Hals的作品，我用來和倫勃朗的風格做對比，以顯示出倫勃朗作品中突出的「戲劇性」

Reference List

1. Rijksmuseum. Rijksmuseum』s website. [Online]. [Accessed 1 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?q=the%20night%20watchp=1ps=12st=Objectsii=0#/SK-C-5,0

2. Moon, J. 2008. 『The person as a critical thinker』 in Critical thinking : an exploration of theory and practice. [Online]. London: Routledge. pp. 19-56 and pp. 65-89. [Accessed 3 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780203944882

3. Weisberg, R. W. 2006. 『The Study of Creativity』 in Creativity : understanding innovation in problem solving, science, invention, and the arts. [Online] Hoboken, N.J.:Wiley. [Accessed 2 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780470036228

4. Schaller, W. 2015. Rembrandt, The Night Watch. [Online]. [Accessed 2 September 2019]. Available from: https://smarthistory.org/rembrandt-the-night-watch/.

5. O』Toole, M. 2003. Captain Banning Cocq』s Three Left Hands: A Semiotic Interpretation of Rembrandt』s The Night Watch. Russian Literature. Vol.54(1). pp.249-261

6. Prodger, M. 2019. That』s us in the picture. New Statesman. Vol.148(5467/5468). pp. 86-89

7. Findlay, M. 2014. The value of art: money, power, beauty. Munich; London: Prestel

8. Wallace, W. 1968. "The Legend and the Man," in The World of Rembrandt: 1606-1669. Time-Life Library of Art. pp. 107-111

最重要的還是真實吧，各種意義上的真實。

我在B站最新一期視頻就講的他，感興趣看一下辣~

Quick ArtHistory | 倫勃朗：光影與真實【美史科普】_嗶哩嗶哩 (゜-゜)つロ乾杯~-bilibili?

www.bilibili.com

倫勃朗作品體裁範圍很廣泛

歷史畫風景畫宗教畫還有肖像畫等

倫勃朗畫了一百多幅肖像畫他身邊的家人都被他畫了個遍尤其是自己的自畫像最多在眾多畫家中有這麼多自畫像的也難找出第二個這也算一種特色吧。

但是他的藝術獨特性是在於

他的特殊心魂的一種特殊技術

明暗法，一經用來談到這位畫家時

便具有一種特別的意義

換言之，倫勃朗的明暗和文藝復興期義大利作家的明暗是有著截然不同的意義的

法國十九世紀畫家兼批評家弗羅芒坦（Fromentin）稱他為「夜光蟲」又有人說他以黑暗來繪成光明。

倫勃朗最知名的作品應該是出現在歷史課本美術課本里的那幅《夜巡》

倫勃朗的名作《夜巡》藏於阿姆斯特丹國立美術館。這是一幅無價的珍品《夜巡》，但卻也因為這幅畫，使得倫勃朗陷入了一個窘迫的境地。事情發生在1642年，倫勃朗36歲。那年有16個保安射手湊錢請倫勃朗畫群像，倫勃朗覺得要把這麼多人安排在一幅畫中非常困難，只能設計一個場景。按照他們的身份，倫勃朗設計的情景是：似乎接到了報警，他們準備出發去查看，隊長在交代任務，有人在擦槍筒，有人在扛旗幟，周圍又有一群孩子在看熱鬧。

在當時，這幅畫遇上了真正的麻煩。那十六個保安射手認為沒有把他們的地位擺平均，明暗、大小都不同，不僅拒絕接受，而且上訴法庭，鬧得紛紛揚揚。整個城市都對倫勃朗充滿嘲笑，他註定要面對無人買畫的絕境，貧困餘生，「像乞丐般下葬」。

直到他去世後的一百年，阿姆斯特丹才驚奇地發現，英國、法國、德國、俄國、波蘭的一些著名畫家，自稱接受了倫勃朗的藝術濡養。