The Jewish Bride is one of the most popular and mysterious Rembrandt paintings. We've all seen it, over and over, on the web, in our art history books, in our regular history books, and in prints on one's wall. I used to work at a library in an art museum. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what this painting was about.
I finally saw it in person while we were in Amsterdam, and nothing you can do will prepare you for the full impact of this image.
First - it's huge. Not as huge as, say, his famous Night Watch (which is truly huge), but the people are nearly life-sized.
Second, the color. In a flat image on a page or screen, the colors look rich and deep, but in person, they nearly vibrate in their intensity and depth. You can see how Rembrandt applied the paint so thickly in some places (the gentleman's sleeve, for example) that it literally swirls into peaks on the canvas. It is a truly three-dimensional painting.
Her jewelry looks so luscious and gleaming that you want to try it on.
I've often wondered about the man's hand on her breast. Sometimes it looked creepy and possessive, sometimes it looked greatly tender.
In person, I got a feeling of immense solace and comfort, instead. Rembrandt captured an important moment in their lives - something big had just happened to these people.
It made me think how you really can't have a full opinion on something until you've experienced it. You can have what Guy Baldwin, MS calls a 'provisional opinion', and it can even be a very well informed one. But to quote, "You can't decide how you really feel about Paris until you've been there."
I didn't how I felt about Rembrandt until I saw his work.
It is an interesting pose. He looks as if he is feeling her heartbeat. His hand is traditionaly where the PMI (point of maximal impact) is felt on someone's chest. Doctors will assess that to determine some aspects of a patients cardiac function. Also, he is not looking at her but off into the distance as if he counting or assessing. She has her hand protectively over his as if she is allowing or guiding his touch but she isn't looking at him either which makes it all a little less personal. It is as if she is almost showing him something, revealing her heart to him.
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