Rembrandt's Early Double Portraits and the Dutch Conversation Piece

Abstract

This essay examines Rembrandt's double portraits of the 1630's within the larger context of emerging Dutch marriage portraiture. In them, he attempts to create images of marital relationship through a portrait vocabulary that had been formulated for the undomestic social institution of the Renaissance court. The Portrait of a Couple (Gardner Museum) reveals tension between public and private ideals of social form. But The Shipbuilder and His Wife and the etched Self-portrait with Saskia, which follow, successfully adapt courtly portrait formulas to domestic meanings. Far from being a hindrance, the social implications of Renaissance portrait conventions provided metaphors to articulate some of the most advanced ideas on marriage of his time.

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