Rembrandt

Amsterdam, Nov. 12 (AFP): Was the Dutch 17th century master, Rembrandt, a Jew? In the last of a series of exhibitions marking the artist’s 400th birthday, the Jewish Historical Museum here sets out to examine the myth of the painter’s Jewish links.

“According to some catalogues from the last century, almost a third of Rembrandt’s works have a Jewish connection, either because they portray Jews, or scenes in which he used Jewish models,” one of the exhibition’s curators, Eduard van Voolen, said.

The myth that Rembrandt had close links with Jews or could indeed have been a Jewish convert can be dated back to the 19th century, according to van Voolen: an increasing number of Jews came to live in the district of Amsterdam, where the artist worked and where there was already a synagogue, and that became known as the “Jewish quarter”.

“Beards, skullcaps, almond eyes and big noses, the frequent use Rembrandt made of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, are all found in a good number of the master’s works, and, particularly in the 19th century, fuelled theories in the minds of Jewish collectors especially that Rembrandt had a special affinity with Jews.”

“Some even suggested he had been initiated into the cabbala, and still today, at conferences in Israel and the United States, I am asked whether Rembrandt had secretly converted to the faith,” van Voolen said.

The exhibition mercilessly demolishes the myth. It retraces the history of the “Jewish quarter”, which in Rembrandt’s day in the 17th century was the “artists’ quarter.” His portraits are of priests with beards, wearing skullcaps and reading Hebrew texts with their almond-slit eyes.

And what about his Moses and the Tables of Law? “If Rembrandt had really painted with the help of a rabbi, he would not have let through the spelling mistakes in the Hebrew text,” suggested van Voolen.

Was Rembrandt’s Christ painted from a model met at the synagogue? Not true: historians say that the picture conforms with a description made up by a medieval monk.

Even the celebrated canvas, The Jewish Bride, is not spared close scrutiny. Does it really portray a Jewish couple? Art historians think it recounts an Old Testament episode when Jefta promised God, that he would sacrifice the first person he met after fighting with the Ammonites, which turned out to be his daughter.

“In fact, only one picture stands up to analysis: the portrait of the Jewish doctor Ehraim Bueno, his neighbour, which is definitely by Rembrandt,” van Voolen concluded.