Rembrandt's Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age [Hardcover]

Shelley Karen Perlove (Author), Larry Silver (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0271034068 | ISBN-13: 978-0271034065 | Publication Date: April 30, 2009

Covering all the media Rembrandt worked in throughout his career, Rembrandt's Faith is the only art-historical study to address the full breadth of the artist's religious imagery. Rembrandt weighed in on important religious issues of his day and was a close student of the Bible, using traditional approaches based on Saint Paul to employ typology between the Old and New Testaments. He also shared the Dutch propensity to draw analogies between the biblical tales of the "chosen people" and Dutch society, including commentary on righteous leadership under God's covenant. Rembrandt's close reading of the Bible and biblical commentary by Calvin and other theologians was greatly abetted by the publication, in 1637, of the Dutch States Bible translation with notes. He also avidly studied seventeenth-century reconstructions of the Jerusalem Temple and frequently located his biblical narratives in re-creations of these spaces. Rembrandt's Faith raises essential questions about the complex relationships among Rembrandt's art, religion, and the theological debates of his time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This important book by two distinguished art historians offers new interpretations of well-known works; brings a substantive body of new evidence to bear on the subject; advances the theoretical discussion of Rembrandt's religious works; gathers an impressive array of sources together for the first time; and is well written, with refreshingly little jargon. --Donald McColl, Washington College

Rembrandt's Faith is an important book. It is by far the most exhaustive study to date of a subject that is important not only in Rembrandt studies but also, because of Rembrandt's towering status in the depiction of biblical subjects, for the study of religion in early modern culture.

--Gary Schwartz, Author of Rembrandt's Universe

No one will be able to study any aspect of Rembrandt's religious imagery, from paintings to drawings and, especially etchings, without consulting Perlove and Silver's volume in advance for suggestions and guidance: the encyclopedic exhaustiveness of the biblical and theological sources perused by the authors with regard to each composition constitutes a motherlode of primary information indispensable for further analysis. --Lorenzo Pericolo, issue 61.6 of Renaissance Quarterly

About the Author

Shelley Perlove is Professor of Art History at the University of Michigan, Dearborn

Larry Silver is Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (Txt) (April 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271034068
• ISBN-13: 978-0271034065
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)