MUSICAL
ALLEGORY
by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
Led by a young woman, a group of people are playing music in a
room. She is reading the music from the sheet, singing and beating time. The two
men are accompanying her on their instruments - the young man on the harp and
the older man on a viola da gamba. An older woman is reading over the girl's shoulder,
listening attentively with her hand on her chin. In the foreground is a violin,
a lute and a pile of books. This is an early work by Rembrandt from 1626. He made
it when he was twenty years old and signed it with the monogram RH: Rembrandt
Harmensz. The painting was only 'discovered' to be by Rembrandt in 1936. Two vertical
halves make up this panel; the join can be clearly seen in the centre.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn is certainly the most famous of Holland's seventeenth-century
painters. He was born in 1606 in Leiden, the fifth son of the miller Harmen Gerritsz.
van Rijn. After attending Latin School he registered in 1620 at Leiden University,
although he never actually graduated. Rembrandt studied under the Leiden painter
Jacob van Swanenburch and under Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam. It was through Lastman
that he discovered the powerful contrast of light and dark of Caravaggio and his
followers. Back in Leiden he set up together with Jan Lievens as an independent
artist, with his own studio and his first pupil: Gerard Dou.