THE AUTHENTICITY OF HIS HUMANITY: REMBRANDT’S RELENTLESS QUEST FOR SELF-UNDERSTANDING

The Authenticity of His Humanity:
Rembrandt’s Relentless Quest for Self-Understanding

I am in awe of Rembrandt’s lifelong, courageous self-reflection, documented in his 85 self-portraits (40 paintings, and several dozen prints and drawings).
To discuss Rembrandt is a daunting task, to understand him, well nigh impossible, but we can make an attempt through his searching, brutally honest, no-holds-barred, intimate, elusive, yet at once revelatory self-portraits.
Authenticity writ large.
Authenticity captured in portraiture.
Here is the famous Rembrandt Self-Portrait with Two Circles, which hangs in Kenwood House, London, in which the artist reveals his world-weariness, the Weltschmerz of his life, pictorially conveying his stoic acceptance of financial ruin and domestic challenges.
Rembrandt demonstrates his genius here by channeling the Renaissance master Giotto himself. We recall the famous story where Giotto, asked by the Pope to send a sample of his art, draws a perfect circle, freehand.
Rembrandt draws two.
In identifying with Giotto, one of the greatest artists in history, Rembrandt is magnificently self-aware and confident, solidifying his own place in the Pantheon of the History of Art.

(Rembrandt Self-Portrait with Two Circles
Kenwood House London, c.1668)