Rembrandt van Rijn - Letter to Huygens

January 12, 1639 My Lord:

Because of the great zeal and devotion which I experienced in executing well the two pictures which His Highness commissioned me to make—the one being Christ's dead body being laid in the tomb and the other Christ arising from the dead to the great consternation of the guardsf—these same two pictures are now finished through studious application, so that I am now also disposed to deliver the same and so to afford pleasure to His Highness. For, in these two paintings the greatest and most natural movement (or most innate emotion);}: has been expressed, which is also the main reason why they have taken so long to execute.

Until now, these words have been interpreted as "the greatest and most natural movement." H. E. van Gelder, however, pointed out that many 17th-century authors used the word beweeglijkheid to express emotion rather than physical movement. Hence Rembrandt's words should be interpreted as "with the greatest and most innate emotion." Rembrandt wished to convey that he had done his uttermost to express the emotions of the figures in accordance with their character. However, J. Rosenberg (Rembrandt, 1, Cambridge, 1948, pp. 116, 226 note 29) and W. Stechow (Art Bulletin, 32, 1950, 253) do not accept this interpretation. They assert that "the interpretation as an inward emotion seems to be contradicted by the pictures themselves, in which the outer movement in the Baroque sense still dominates, and by the aesthetics of the period."

An unbiased observer will have to admit that the Resurrection is a "turbulent composition with frenzied Baroque movement," but that the Entombment is a composition fraught with inward feeling. Van Gelder has correctly drawn attention to the fact that the spectators—and also in the Resurrection —are moved by an inward emotion. New linguistic research supports van Gelder's theory (L. de Paauw-de Veer, Oud Holland, 74, 1959, 202).

Therefore, I request my Lord to be so kind as to inform His Highness of this, and whether it would please my Lord that the two pictures should first be delivered at your house as was done on the previous occasion. I shall first await a note in answer to this.

And as my Lord has been troubled in these matters for the second

time, a piece lo feet long and 8 feet high shall also be added as

a token of my appreciation, which will be worthy of my Lord's house.

And wishing you all the happiness and heavenly blessings, Amen.

My lord, your humble and obedient servant,

Rembrandt