Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama

Rembrandt's Eyes Reviews

• 
  M. D. Hudson

  I hate Simon Schama’s prose Hate it He is a shameless heedless over writer of the self regarding not as funny as he thinks kind If two adjectives will work six will work even better Here is Amsterdam as rendered by SchamaBy the time Pieter Segerszoon had gone to his Maker in 1603 there were twice the number of folk in the city and all manner of voices could be head on the Dam eastern accents thick and yawning from Gelderland and Overijssel; German gutturals; the soft glottals of Walloons and Brabanders; the singsong gurglings of Norwegians and Danes; the the legato run of Italian consonants that made the speakers sound as though they were on the verge of bursting either into a song or a fight” p 221Notice how Schama runs the gamut from clichés those Italian “legato runs” and the singing and fighting to what is basically nonsense what is a “thick and yawning” accent? Or “singsong gurglings” for that matter Some readers like this sort of thing but I don’t It didn’t come as a surprise since I’d read Schama’s pieces in the New Yorker for years and found him to be insufferable for these very reasons Such bad writing is not merely an annoyance it can also lead to a kind of moral failing which I think it does in this book It is bad enough to give northern European ethnic stereotypes a workout but it is even worse when this elephantine “playfulness” is applied to individuals Virtually every biographical aspect of the lives discussed in this book gets worked over this way It doesn’t help matters that Schama is one of those people who feel inclined to spell out in great detail his opinion of physical appearances Virtually everybody in the book is described with all the snarkiness and off hand cruelty of a News of the World celebrity profile of who is fattest on the beach this summer So why so many stars? I freakin’ loved this book I couldn’t put it down For one thing it is gorgeously printed and intelligently laid out – the full color reproductions are top notch and even the black and white stuff is fine They illustrations are scattered throughout the book and are always within a page of the text where they are being discussed Another thing that saves this book from its author is paradoxically its author When Schama gets around to talking about the actual paintings which he does a lot fortunately his over cooked ridiculous prose actually works for him This is I think because he takes paintings seriously than the artists who painted them or the models who sat for them He talks about the art with passion and intelligence and respect Although he sometimes crosses over into art crit afflatus hello John Berger he never wholly succumbs And he has a good eye for telling details important information about revisions modifications and damage suffered The book is also admirably organized if not exactly as advertised A large chunk of it – over a third perhaps – is devoted to Peter Paul Rubens whose life and career were ending just as Rembrandt’s career was starting Ruben’s life was fascinating – he was in the full sense of the word a Renaissance man Cultured talented socially adroit and civic minded He was a uxorious husband and a good father to boot Despite being a mere craftsman as painters still were then he wound up acting as a kind of diplomat without portfolio running secret missions between Spain and the Netherlands trying to bring peace That he was used by both side for the typically cunning yet stupid high level diplomacy that seems to characterize most international politics This discouraged him but it did not seem to make him cynical I never thought I cared much for Ruben’s art – all that Rubenesue stuff you know – but Schama – again when he actually sticks to talking about art – is a reliable and enthusiastic guide and I found myself realizing how narrow minded and clichéd and ignorant I was when it came to Ruben’s achievement His “Descent from the Cross” is sublime But Rembrandt is who I was most interested in and strangely enough for all of Schama’s frantic adjective mongering Rembrandt remained a kind of shadowy sketchy personality in this book Unlike Shakespeare there is uite a bit of information available but for some reason he just doesn't uite emerge from the impasto here But we still have the paintings and that's what matters
• 
  Jonfaith

  The immense heft of this book always made it a precarious investment Unsuited to overseas travel and simply not practical to take to work daily the book remained in a limbo of utility and my attentions have languished for likely a decade until this fortunate alignment of the stars Was I disappointed? Yes yes I was Aside from the overwriting Schama devotes much of the book first half to Rubens who was a lodestar to Rembrandt We also have detailed accounts of the culinary fare available in Amsterdam All of this is rather interesting but is it germane?I wanted discussions of light and shadow in Rembrandt I was an explication of The Night Watch I received both Ultimately this tome was euipped to address my issues of visual illiteracy and for that I am most grateful I do think I will refrain from reading Schama for the time being
• 
  Marit

  This is a beautiful meticulously written biography on the works and life of Rembrandt Every chapter branches off into new stories about the historic happenings and beliefs of the 17th century time which give you a very solid understanding of the world and human life at that time A little long winded but highly informative Simon Schama teaches you how to properly look at Rembrandt's paintings
• 
  James Murphy

  This is an impressive book It's a critical biography of Rembrandt full of Schama's elegant prose and full of colorful reproductions of Rembrandt's masterworks The comprehensive analysis of the art and the artist probably ensure this to be the definitive general work on Rembrandt for years to come
• 
  Merilee

  5 stars Probably the best book I read all year and the 700 huge pages only took me 8 monthsSchama is brilliant on the history as well as the art criticism Beautiful prints too
• 
  James

  I read this in conjunction with a Rembrandt exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago Simon Schama is able to provide the context of the times that Rembrandt lived and as a result this life comes alive with the life and art of this artistic genius The details about the development of Rembrandt as and artist and businessman are illuminating but there is also the story of the rising middle class the customers who filled the walls of their homes with paintings from Rembrandt and his contemporaries The studios of these painters were kept busy during the era chronicled by Schama in another of his histories The Embarrassment of Riches The commentary on Rembrandt's development as an artist and his use of colors and unusual subjects is worth the read but Schama's prose style makes the reading a pure pleasure
• 
  Amy

  If you have not yet discovered Simon Schama then you are in for a real treat This book reads as smooth as historical fiction but has all the footnotes to prove it is so much than that Schama is a historian that understands the soul of Rembrandt If an advid art enthusiast or new to the subject you will love this book Schama examines Rembrandt through the Ruben's perspective and explains how important Rubens was for not only Rembrandt but every other artist of that time period There is rarely a time in the past three years that this book has not been in my backpack I can't seem to live without it
• 
  Christan

  If you can wade through this incredibly detailed and meaty book you will acuire an indigestion of insight and will no doubt be the smartest kid at the party of all things Rembrandt
• 
  Monwar Hussain

  I am at page 294 and I really do not want to stop allowing this book to let me live in Leiden or Antwerp or Mantua or Madrid for many weekends This book is like Grand Theft Auto the game I have installment #5 in mind you think it will tell you about Rembrandt and you hear it will also tell you about Rubens and you become a little apprehensive about what a stuffy Columbia academic has to tell you about people dead for 400 years But then you read some excerpts and hear a little about Schama and his grandiose style and you start to build up hope Then you actually start reading this beautifully typeset and illustrated big 700 page doorstopper of a book and you are given a magnificent historical treatment of the Eighty Years' War colored by individual characters and generations of humanity that lead to the creation of Rubens and Rembrandt the fall of Flanders the rise of Northern Netherlands the fall of Spain the rivalry between Antwerp and Amsterdam the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants and within that the rivalry between remonstrant and non remonstrant Calvinists Schama doesn't wear his learning lightly he loves to show off example early Rembrandt biographer having 9 Lievens's and no Rembrandts damn that cracked me up and he loves to build minute details the beeldenstroms that destoryed Antwerp's great churches the details of Leiden's neighborhoods which defined Lievens or Rembrandt the philosophy driving Rubens's house the beautiful descriptions of Mantua and Madrid I have not read many art history books but this book reads so much like a Simon Winder style contextual history makes you wonder at the fertility and futility of the War and the Golden Age and then it gives you the real stuff a deep appreciation of painting almost teaching you handholding you on the striking level of details and contrasts and how pictorially Rembrandt and even Rubens were such revolutionaries
• 
  Tarotemp

  As a longtime fan of authorhistorianart critic Simon Schama from his History of Britain and Power of Art series respectively I had no doubt that Schama would score big with Rembrandt's Eyes The author captures perfectly the up and coming on the economic world stage hustle bustle feel of early seventeenth century Amsterdam and one of its greatest exports Rembrandt van Rijn If you are familiar with Schama's narrative style you'll know he is nothing at all like the typical stuffy tweed coat wearing scholar boring the reader to death with mind numbing regurgitation of facts He's a wordsmith of the rarest kind; able to recount history in such a way that it's entertaining and informative Bringing us little tidbits of information events usually relegated to footnote status by other authors that allows us to see into the past thoroughlyThis is not an endeavor to be taken lightly however The hardcover version is big bulky and probably weighs at least 5 lbs I meant to weigh the book before I returned it to my local library but never got around to it Inside though Rembrandt's Eyes was a marvel for this artist Gorgeous color plates of works by Rembrandt and his contemporaries including Peter Paul Reubens who gets his own section in the book printed on smooth glossy paper I caught myself on than one occasion admiring the finished product as I'm sure many others have before me