May Art Pic

Probably my favorite piece of art ever (so far :)) is The Draper's Guild by Rembrandt. I don't know what exactly it is about this painting, but it just draws me in. I've been fascinated by it since I was a junior in high school when I read about it in a novel. In this novel (an Anne Rice novel, but I can't remember which one) a man is talking to another man about how he believes the men in the painting know some truth that we don't know. He hypothesizes that they know the meaning of life and are being kind of smug about it. That isn't exactly my take on it, but I can see how someone could feel that way about it. I absolutely love how the man on the left is getting up from his seat as if to welcome you into the space and all of the men are looking squarely at the viewer/you. That is really a neat thing and that's why I enjoy Rembrandt's works so much; he brings so much psychology into play. Another of my favorite Rembrandt works is Bathsheba right after she gets the letter from David. She has such a sober, contemplative look on her face... Rembrandt was an amazing guy. When I was at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam I sat in front of Draper's Guild on a black metal bench for about 10 minutes, which was about as long as I could convince my friend Nikki to wait for me, but I could have stayed and looked at it all day. Nikki had wanted to get on with it since it was such a huge museum full of wonderful stuff and we still had lots more in Amsterdam to see before nightfall. (Amsterdam is gorgeous during the day and a scary, crazy, red-light district sort of place at night.) As I sat in front of this painting I was in awe of the thick, rich, colors and the fact that I really was looking at such a masterful work of art. I went on to study Rembrandt in my Northern Baroque class in college with Dr. Peacock and was able to appreciate Rembrandt even more in the context of the place and time in which he lived. Lovely, lovely, Draper's Guild... oh, how I love thee... :)