The Story of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son

in his old age Rembrandt was a Broken Man he had moved from the toast of the town to the other side of the tracks he was deeply in debt and no one had seemed wanted his paintings his reputation of course is an artist was more than secure but the times it seemed had passed him by there were new artists new ideas and they were getting all the attention [Music] all Rembrandt had left was his son Titus three of his children had died young and his wife saskia had died about 25 years earlier and so Titus was his only heir [Music] the two worked hard trying to get Rembrandt out of debt and back on his feet with his son being frantic to take care of his aging father [Music] and then Titus died and Rembrandt was alone it was during these years that Rembrandt painted one of his most moving pieces The Prodigal Son painted by a father who had lost everything it is a masterpiece of light and Shadow brush work and it is a deeply emotional painting so emotional in fact that once it was discovered after his death it was a little bit controversial people felt it was too much too vulnerable today however it is beloved widely recognized in fact many recognize it without realizing that it's a Rembrandt but what is the story of this painting [Music] Rembrandts today remembered as one of the great Masters in the history of art his use of light and color is so memorable the today photographers and cinematographers still refer to a style of lighting as Rembrandt lighting half the face and then a reflected light on the other half it creates this sense of tone and Shadow in the face that just makes a pleasing portrait rembrandted that with his brushes [Music] he was born in 1606. at a time when the church ruled with an iron fist but it was also a time when Amsterdam was the epicenter of global trade and culture when it was there that a young Rembrandt emerged not just as an artist but as a revolutionary it was the Dutch Golden Age though some historians don't like that term today but in the world of Fine Art Rembrandt was not the only Master others like Vermeer and Halls were also painting and there was this explosion of Dutch painting second perhaps only to the Renaissance in Italy thank you you see the Netherlands at this time was experiencing an economic boom energy resources were cheap seafaring technology had finally gotten to the point where ships could go around the globe and advancements in science and technology were increasingly common and so money poured into the new Republic and with money comes a desire for the Finer Things [Music] Rembrandt himself it seemed had been destined for painting he'd attended a calvinist Latin School up until the age of 13 at which point he enrolled at the University of Leiden whatever his father wanted for his life Rembrandt soon took an interest in painting it was there that his real talent began to shine in fact by the age of 21 despite rejecting the habit of most artists of traveling to Italy to study the Renaissance firsthand Rembrandt had already opened up his own studio in Leiden and was taking students his own work soon caught the eye of very very important clients including Prince Hendrick and after this initial success he moved his shop to Amsterdam [Music] there he met his wife saskia they married and before long they were an Amsterdam power couple preeminent leaders in the bustling art world of the Netherlands [Music] before I get into the painting itself there are two things that I want to kind of draw out about Rembrandt and his art the first is some comment on his personal beliefs Modern Art historians love to squint the idea that Rembrandt was a man of faith truth is we don't know either way fully but we do have to point out that Rembrandt is in the Dutch world where the calvinist church as I've already said ruled his parents when they met and married were astonishly catholic but after the Civil War they divided the northern reformed regions of the Netherlands from Catholic Belgium to the South the young couple had married and emigrated to Leiden remember it in other words would have been very familiar with the before and after and he was a teenager in fact when the Armenian controversy erupted and as many as a third of the pastors were forced to step down the truth is we know very little about Rembrandt's personal beliefs but it is worth pointing out that a third of his paintings were seen from the Bible and after his death the surveyor of his property noticed that he had one book an old worn Bible that he kept at his bedside there's something more to Rembrandt when he approaches biblical stories than just an artist who has a commission he seems to want to get into the story Into the message more so than I think often is given credit the other factor is that being part of the area of Amsterdam ruled as I said by Calvinists it is a bit strange that he did so much religious art he seems to have wanted it to be very very authentic a bit of an exegete you might say so for example the area that Rembrandt lived in in the Amsterdam when he was at the height of his powers was a bustling kind of melting pot of lots of different refugees not just other Protestants there were some Catholics there as well but there were also Jewish refugees that had sought a better life there in the new Republic and one of the more interesting things perhaps I think the first to do so is that whenever Rembrandt painted a scene from the Old Testament he would use Jewish models to sit for his paintings now before you go to the comets and say this one might have pointed out to Rembrandt that the New Testament folks were Jewish too but the point is Rembrandt's instincts were to take the subject matter seriously and One Step Beyond that not only does he take seriously the subject of who's sitting for the painting but he has a unique angle whenever he does a portrait or a scene from the Bible to not simply get lost in metaphor we're going to see this in a minute when we talk about the Prodigal Son [Music] but rembrat is uniquely tuned into the emotions of the moment the scenes are not too big they seem almost lifelike almost real and in that sense Rembrandt's Biblical Art stands out in unique contrast from his day if he's trying to get us to see anything he's trying to get us to see the real and the emotional things that are at work in these stories we might say today he wants your heart not just your head and I'll discuss this in future videos I'm going to do more videos on Rembrandt I dislike him that much but for now just realize that Rembrandt's tone Rembrandt's focus when he's looking at the prodigal son is unique for his day he wants us to enter into the scene with our emotions with our intuition okay back to the Prodigal Son painting the story of the prodigal son is well known but we should cover it just to make sure we're on the same page it comes from the Gospel of Luke and it's a story told by Jesus in it a wealthy father has two sons one is obedient and follows all the rules of his father and the other is rebellious the rebellious son asked for his inheritance so that he can leave and go spend it how he wants now that would be a bananas request today in the ancient world this tantamount to saying I would rather you were dead father and I never want to see you again this is more than a slap in the face this is a son abandoning his father the son leaves blows his inheritance and all the wildest of Adventures and ultimately he winds up penniless living as a homeless man the story is embellished by the fact that he's eating the pig slop the pig food because he had nothing for himself and in a last-ditch effort destitute and desperate the son decides to return home and ask if he can simply be a servant in his father's house not restored but hopefully allowed to at least work and eat the problem though is that the father wants the son back when the father sees him coming down the road the story says that the father lifts his robes and runs to his son not a few today have pointed out that in the ancient world lifting robes like this was considered scandalous or beneath the stature of a wealthy man showing her legs was just not done back then it's as if the father simply doesn't care to hell with protocol I want my boy back and the father Embraces the prodigal son with all the love that he has but there's one problem the older brother the so-called good one who's kept all the rules he isn't satisfied and wants a Vengeance he feels better having kept the rules and he wants a steeper price to be paid before his brother can receive love if that is he even deserves love again at all but the Father rebukes the older brother for his lack of love and he says no we're going to Feast we're going to celebrate that your brother who is dead is back and he doesn't have to earn it and there's no Hoops that he has to jump through to still be my son so that is the inspiration for Rembrandt's Prodigal Son but it's worth pointing out this painting is not the first time that Rembrandt has painted The Prodigal Son in 1635 when he was at the height of his powers in fact Rembrandt painted another one called The Prodigal Son and the brothel the painting is actually a bit provocative well ostentatious clothing the hand around the prostitute's waist and the comically large beer glass really stand out the haze and drunken eyes are unmistakable [Music] framed at the bottom of the painting By The Sword of nobility that still hangs at the prodigal's waist this is a prince gone slumming ruining his life [Music] and there's two things to see in this painting this is not just the Prodigal Son before his downfall a scene that would bring its own reflection its own lesson you might say if we were to explore that you see this is also a somewhat ironic self-portrait by Rembrandt fact it is literally a self-portrait the face is Rembrandts and I wish we could ask him Point Blank why he made himself The Prodigal Son here but perhaps the answer is simple he sees himself a bit as a prodigal but it goes deeper the woman on his lap is his wife saskia painted when they were both wealthy and living in the vibrant part of town partying and drinking and having Rembrandt's work be celebrated throughout the city it is a somewhat prophetic painting only a few years Sasuke would be dead and Rembrandt would be on the road to debt and ruination so Rembrandt seems especially tuned into the subject of The Prodigal Son [Music] the lavishness the drunkenness the debauchery all before the prodigal son needs the love is something that as a younger man Rembrandt felt inspired the show [Music] okay back to the Prodigal Son itself the painting today is in Saint Petersburg Russia in the Hermitage Museum but it's important to see that the scene is a moment you see for most of art history particularly in Remembrance Day the story of the prodigal son is always done metaphorically I think by modern sensibilities it's a bit overdone for example what the heck is a poodle doing in the foreground but more generally the artistic approach to painting The Prodigal Son was always more about the lesson lots of symbolism lots of opportunity to study and learn Rembrandts is different as we've already said he was now alone he had lost a son lost four children in fact but his son that was his Heir had recently passed and as we've already mentioned Rembrandt saw himself in the brothel as the prodigal son at least in some way you might say that Rembrandt intuits both sides the son who needs to come back and the father who misses his son and so what we have here is not a lesson it is a moment a deeply personal moment a few things stand out first of all a couple of small things Rembrandt has painted mom into the picture he's not part of the original story but he wanted mom in the background and he paints her there in the shadows secondly the older brother draped in the same robes as father almost in a mimicry almost in a I am of equal stature I am the good one stands there with his Cane which was a symbol of his authority and he looks on with his pleasure it's important to note though just how delicately Rembrandt has rendered this there is not open disgust on the older brother's face in fact if you were to look at this normally you might mistake this as something solemn in fact I've come across at least one art historian who thinks that this is some kind of witness to the moment but this is clearly the brother he is wearing the same robes as the father and he's looking along with disapproval with his hands folded Rembrandt has done an amazing job here of suggesting the inward struggle within the older brother once you know the story the face is unmistakable he's not happy seeing his brother weep seeing his brother broken seeing his brother penniless losing everything it looks as if he's just about to turn his back very very well done secondly The Prodigal himself no one in Remembrance Day painted The Prodigal in such a broken way his clothes are hanging off of him there's a dagger at his hip symbolizing either the little fragment that's left of his nobility but also of the struggle he had outside of his father's house [Music] the shoes are especially important one completely lost the other about to fall off his head is uncovered but his face The Prodigal son's face buried in his father's chest is so delicate so well painted burying into the love completely oblivious to the surroundings and lost in the moment is one of the best things that Rembrandt's ever painted above him is the father the face is turned just slightly eyes closed to embrace his lost son the fatherly robes in fact surround the sun they come from the father off of his shoulders and they come down and as it were veiled the sun and the tattered clothes of the prodigal are now being draped by the Robes of the father also an art always notice the hands Henry now and pointed this out as well the two hands stand out in contrast one hand the right hand on our perspective the father's left hand appears a little bit more masculine appears to be pulling the sun towards him it is grabbing his shoulder you can see the veins in it you could see the strength in that hand as he's saying come here my son the other one rests a lot more delicately in the middle of his back as he soothes the sun in the middle of his anguish and lastly the foreground the scene as we're supposed to see it the older brother off to the side and this moment of Love is bathed in light everything else in Shadow so that above all you don't miss the Father's Love [Music] thank you [Music] even with his brother looking on morning him gone wanting him shunned he is home those Angry Eyes can't take away from the fact that he knows that his father loves him [Music] and his father does love him his hands his face his emotions all say I'm so glad you're back that's the moment that Rembrandt wants us to see [Music]