DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1183#0178
LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 33
either in texture or in colour, and that appearance, familiar to the
recollection of every one; but to convey which, either in poetry or in
painting, is only in the power of a few.
Rembrandt seems always to have taken up a leading feature in his
works, and never to have lost sight of it. The varieties in his prints
are but corroborations of this; as in his anxiety for its preservation
we trace him destroying every impediment, either by covering down or
burying whole groups in shadow, or by leaving in an unfinished state
other groups, with a mere outline to define them. For example, if we
take the first state of the print of the great Ecce Homo, we perceive he
has made Christ in the centre of a group, in a quiet broad mass of light,
with the strong darks gradating from him, right and left, and surrounded
by masses of half tint. He has then etched in the principal group,
commencing with the figure addressing the multitude, and terminating
with the right hand of Pilate. This portion being in strong light,
interspersed with a variety of strong darks, acquires by this means great
brilliancy and agitation. We have therefore the quiet character of Christ
preserved, and his superiority maintained, by his forming the centre of
one group, and the apex of the other, rising, as Fuseli describes it, u like
a pyramid from the tumultuous waves below."
If we take his print of the Angels appearing to the Shepherds, in the
first state we find a broad mass of shadow running through the centre in
a diagonal line, thus giving it its greatest magnitude. In the upper part
is preserved the principal light, radiating from a centre, with a multitude
of children sporting in its beams, and out of which the angel addresses
F
either in texture or in colour, and that appearance, familiar to the
recollection of every one; but to convey which, either in poetry or in
painting, is only in the power of a few.
Rembrandt seems always to have taken up a leading feature in his
works, and never to have lost sight of it. The varieties in his prints
are but corroborations of this; as in his anxiety for its preservation
we trace him destroying every impediment, either by covering down or
burying whole groups in shadow, or by leaving in an unfinished state
other groups, with a mere outline to define them. For example, if we
take the first state of the print of the great Ecce Homo, we perceive he
has made Christ in the centre of a group, in a quiet broad mass of light,
with the strong darks gradating from him, right and left, and surrounded
by masses of half tint. He has then etched in the principal group,
commencing with the figure addressing the multitude, and terminating
with the right hand of Pilate. This portion being in strong light,
interspersed with a variety of strong darks, acquires by this means great
brilliancy and agitation. We have therefore the quiet character of Christ
preserved, and his superiority maintained, by his forming the centre of
one group, and the apex of the other, rising, as Fuseli describes it, u like
a pyramid from the tumultuous waves below."
If we take his print of the Angels appearing to the Shepherds, in the
first state we find a broad mass of shadow running through the centre in
a diagonal line, thus giving it its greatest magnitude. In the upper part
is preserved the principal light, radiating from a centre, with a multitude
of children sporting in its beams, and out of which the angel addresses
F