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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to have been an unfailingsource of inspiration to him throughout all his career. But he showsa marked predilection for special episodes. Certain characters of HolyWrit seem to have had a peculiar attraction for him. He follows themfrom their birth upwards, attaching himself to them, learning the detailsof their career, living their lives with them ; and as his knowledge ofthem grows, revealing facts concerning them, either newly discovered, orset forth in some original form never attempted by any of his pre-decessors. We have seen that he had already treated numerousepisodes in the history of Samson. But this story, with its stratagems,violence, and opportunities for decorative display, lends itself at bestmerely to picturesque treatment, and even the character of the hero,and the incidents in which he figures are hardly such as to stir thefeelings very deeply. In the Book of Tobit, on the other hand,the master found subjects loftier and more expressive, in which the Vi« Vi « cc a I
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PICTURES TAKEN FROM THE BOOK OF TOBIT 231 deepest and noblest feelings of humanity are called into play. Thetenderness, faith, and patient courage of the old man, whose pietysustains him through the most cruel afflictions, the devotion he inspiresin his son, the sacrifice of his own happiness involved in the separationfrom this beloved child ; the youths journey with his mysterious com-panion, his adventures by the way, the events connected with hismarriage, the growing anxiety of the parents at his prolonged ab-sence, the reproaches with which the wife assails the blind old man ;his own regrets ; the joy of the return and of the miraculous cure,the amazement of the family when the angel reveals himself, andvanishes from their sight—all these varied and moving incidentsRembrandt treated, some several times over. Pictures, drawings, andetchings form a series of compositions in which all the essentialfeatures of the poetic cycle are rendered. Some among the paintingswe must allow to b

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