Rembrandt Research Project

The Rembrandt Research Project in Amsterdam consists of a group of scientists who studied the works of Rembrandt van Rijn's authenticity and autograph character since 1968. Among the works attributed to Rembrandt were many that were made ​​by students and staff in his workshop and partly sold under his name. The investigations of the Rembrandt Research Project led to some, some spectacular, amortization of previously known as the work of Rembrandt's paintings. In this context, the project has been met with criticism and opposition. In addition to the authenticity of investigation, the project has provided further insights on Rembrandt's work and his works.

Background and problem

The determination of the authenticity of Rembrandt's already dropped his contemporaries difficult, as they are difficult to distinguish from those of other artists like Govaert Flinck, Jan Lievens or Arent de Gelder part. In addition, copies and variations were made in the workshop, so that, for example, ten versions of the penitent Judas are known, which can not be clearly assigned to a particular artist. Some of archival, literary references or reproduction stitches can be used to determine the author, but this is not particularly reliable. In addition, scientific studies of the plants and the connoisseurship of specific quality and style properties of the artist, after which similarities and differences compared with non-documented works can be found. However, subject to subjective factors. At the beginning of the 20th century an optimistic attribution practice was widespread, the stylistic features for the evaluation of a painting as an authentic work of Rembrandt far summarized.

Structure of the Rembrandt Research Project and whose work

The Rembrandt Research Project is an interdisciplinary structure and supports the findings of various researchers in the respective publications together. Members of the project have included Joshua Bruyn, Bob Haak, Simon H. Levie, Pieter van Thiel and Ernst van de Wetering. The four first-mentioned withdrew from the project, so that van de Wetering has lagged as a leading figure in the project.

The project evaluated the images that are attributed to Rembrandt, in terms of their authenticity. They divided the work into three categories: Category A includes paintings whose authorship Rembrandt is secured, Category B are those whose authorship Rembrandts not considered safe, but also can not be denied, and Category C includes works whose authorship Rembrandts not confirmed can be and are associated with its radius. The assignment of some works has been controversial in the respective category. So in 1982, Laughing by the three painted on gilded copper plates images soldier from the Mauritshuis, Old Woman Praying the residence gallery and a self-portrait from the Swedish National Museum, all of which have a similar small format, with the praying old woman only the most perfectly painted picture as authentic explained. The catalog of the exhibition, the young Rembrandt. Mystery of his beginnings, which was shown in 2001 in Amsterdam and Kassel, but also the two other images were counted for the safe core of the authentic works from Rembrandt's work of the years 1627 to 1629. This lack of clarity, there are some works. Thus, Ernst van de Wetering has taken some of his early amortization distance and again attributed works among the authentic paintings.

The Rembrandt Research Project reduced the number of those considered authentic works of Rembrandt at around 350 and published his research results in the previous five catalogs. Among the most prominent depreciation while the portrait is one of The Man with the Golden Helmet of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie. It was not sure reassigned, but there is the hypothesis that it was made ​​by a native of Augsburg painter Johann Ulrich Mayr, who worked for a time in Rembrandt's workshop, because the helmet from a Augsburger armorers came from. There is also the hypothesis that the author of this portrait is to be sought not in the shop, but in the wider area of Rembrandt. Also of depreciation on a larger scale the drawings were affected, while the etchings were already largely exempt from school works and imitations.

Apart from the question of the authenticity of the works of Rembrandt Rembrandt Research Project has achieved new insights to the workshop and the teaching of Rembrandt and archival discoveries to the biography of the artist, to models and early origins of his works. Furthermore, it has brought together many scientific findings to Rembrandt's in a database, such as the pigments, binders and painting surfaces used. In addition to X-rays and neutron irradiation many clues have been provided to the painting process.

Publications

The Rembrandt Research Project has published as editor:

• A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings - Volume I, Rembrandt 's early years in Leiden (1629-1631), 1982
• A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings - Volume II: 1631-1634. 39-2
• A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings - Volume III, 1635-1642. Bruyn, J., Haak, B. Levie, SH, van Thiel, PJJ, van de Wetering, E. ( ed.), Volume 3, 1990, ISBN 978-90-247-3781-9
• A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings - IV Authors: Ernst van de Wetering, Karin Groen, including Springer -Verlag, Dordrecht, the Netherlands ( NL). ISBN 1-4020-3280-3. 692 pages, 650 illustrations, 250 of them in color. Self-portraits.
• A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings V The Small - Scale History Paintings Only van de Wetering (Ed.) 1st Edition. , 2011, XVIII, 674 p. 898 illus, 629 in color. , Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4020-4607-0

Criticism

The Rembrandt Research Project has been criticized mainly because of its depreciation practice. Thus, for example, was criticized by a group of Anglo-Saxon art historians, which included some museum curators, loud, their motives were the methodology of the project and the risk of Rembrandt 's own stocks. The former director of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Frits Duparc, criticized the position van de Weterings in the project that would stand as an authority over the other researchers and pretended that direction. The Wetering replied that he collect the information from his research colleagues and then publiziere.