by Jon Lackman | 5 June 2007 | Baroque/Neoclassical
Need a dissertation topic? In the Spring 2007 Renaissance Quarterly, Ann Jensen Adams welcomes two recent books on Rembrandt’s portraits, but finds that still more work needs to be done. In particular, the long-beloved late “half-length introspective figures created in broad strokes brown and ochre … raise important and as yet unanswered questions about contemporaneous reception and taste. Hovering between portraiture and history painting, the intended associations of these diverse figures remain a puzzle.” In her conclusion, she underscores how “unknown this period remains for scholars, and how moving it remains for viewers.”
