Identifier: rembrandthislife01mich (find matches)
Title: Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Michel, Emile, 1828-1909 Simmonds, Florence Wedmore, Frederick, Sir, 1844-1921
Subjects: Rembrandt Hermanszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669
Publisher: London : W. Heinemann
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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er Scriptural scene,the Samsons Marriage Feast in the Dresden Gallery, dated 1638.The banquet, which took place in a hall hung with splendid tapestries,and lasted seven days, according to the Bible narrative, seems to bedrawing to its close. The guests, if we may judge by the licence oftheir attitudes, have hardly observed the strict sobriety proper to theEast. They sit or lie on couches round the table, and divert themselveswith small respect for the proprieties. A cavalier in the foreground,more enterprising than the rest, clasps his neighbour closely round thewaist ; another of the ladies, to whom a gallant offers a cup of wine,proclaims by her gesture that further libations would be perilous.Bedecked like some heathen idol, loaded with necklaces and jewels, adiadem on her head, her hands folded sanctimoniously across herbreast, the daughter of the Philistines, who has Saskias features, sitsalmost in the centre of the composition, a stolid spectator of the feast. °0 s «8 Su Ç c?
Text Appearing After Image:
THE FEAST OF SAMSON 227 Samson reclines by her side, but turns away as if no longer greatlyinterested in her. A garland of leaves rests on his shaggy hair, andhis loose robe of green, embroidered with gold and precious stones, isopen across his brawny chest. Illustrating his words by a somewhatvulgar gesture, he propounds one of his riddles to a group of musiciansin fanciful Turkish dresses behind him. He looks like some herculeanacrobat, chatting familiarly with his orchestra. It is difficult to under-stand what was the masters attraction in this uninteresting episode.Style, by which I mean the harmony between methods of expressionand the subject expressed, was clearly out of the question here. Butif, setting aside the peculiarities of the composition, we examineits technical qualities, we shall find that the execution has becomebroader and freer. The play of light is more accurately defined ;it is concentrated on the principal group, and the objects in shadow,though less obtrusive,

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