Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . is part,relies on the judgmentand discretion of HisHighness, and will grate-fully receive the sumallotted to him. Although later bythree years than theAscension, the Entomb-ment and the Resurrec-tion—the latter is dated1639—might easily beassigned to the sameyear. This may be ex-plained in a great measureby the fact that all threewere begun before 1633,and that Rembrandt,when finishing the twolast, evidently tried tomake both style andexecution conform to his first inception. But we shall see that in the interval he hadmodified his manner very consi
Rembrandt, his life, his work and his time . is part,relies on the judgmentand discretion of HisHighness, and will grate-fully receive the sumallotted to him. Although later bythree years than theAscension, the Entomb-ment and the Resurrec-tion—the latter is dated1639—might easily beassigned to the sameyear. This may be ex-plained in a great measureby the fact that all threewere begun before 1633,and that Rembrandt,when finishing the twolast, evidently tried tomake both style andexecution conform to his first inception. But we shall see that in the interval he hadmodified his manner very considerably. His increased breadth, andsimplicity now enabled him to express himself more vigorously andclearly. The conception of the Entombment lacks neither grandeur noreloquence. The cave, its entrance hung with creepers; the distantview of Calvary, with the sinister outlines of the three crossesagainst the horizon ; the turbulent crowd, the fitful gleams of light,the heavy shadows round the pallid corpse—all these are detailsvol. 1 Q. PORTRAIT OF REMBRANDT. 1633 (B. 17). i62 REMBRANDT worthy of the master, and attest the wealth of an imagination thatdiscovered aspects undreamt of by his predecessors in the mosthackneyed themes. We must not, however, overlook defects soobvious as the meagre and puny figure of the Christ, the repulsiveugliness of several among the bystanders, the multiplicity of episodes,and the complexity arising from the use of such various sources of lightas the golden reflections of the setting sun on the horizon, the flamingtorch which Nicodemus shades with his hand, and the lantern to theright of the picture. In spite of such blemishes, the work seems to havebeen highly appreciated in its day, for three copies, made probablyin Rembrandts studio, are extant, one in the Brunswick Museum, andtwo in the Dresden Museum. One of the two at Dresden (No. 1566in the Catalogue) appears to have remained in his studio, for themaster worked upon it himself in cert
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