On Art

...Important as Rembrandt was as a painter, it is his etchings that above all demonstrate his powers, skills and innovativencss...

...And because they have similar themes, the exhibits raise some interesting questions about the importance of form in art...

...Even the smallest one moves us more than some of the celebrated canvases, such as Xighl H'aleh...

...Nor did he pour more passion into an image of Christ than into a rendition of his son Titus, nor does he depict Mary with more reverence than a peasant woman with a child...

...This is physically and psychologically exhausting, for mistakes cannot be easily corrected...

...From that we get the printed image...

...a drawing is traced and then incised with a stylus down to the plate...

...Of course, this is not to deny the basic humanity evident in the art that has made it universally appealing...

...The chronology of Rembrandt's life and work indicates that his first Biblical etchings were made in 1626, when he was 20...

...In the latter process, the artist cuts directly into a copper plate with a tool called a burin...

...He produced one self-portrait after another because he wanted to explore and refine his technique—and he was a subject easily and constantly observable—not because he was an egomaniac...

...One is Rembrandt and the Bible, a collection of etchings at the Metropolitan...

...Still, on the whole the art is too personal and ephemeral, too dependent on the viewer's ability to suspend his need for meaning and order...

...Sometimes Twombly's enigmatic art does exactly what it sets out to do...

...Indeed, if one had to assign some specific reason for his choice of Biblical scenes, it would be their marketability to the burghers of Amsterdam at a time when his painting commissions had declined and his funds had dwindled perilously...

...Rembrandt's innovations changed the practice of etching...

...In the following decade the etchings—ranging in subject from beasts of the field to blind beggars, from Old Testament figures to the Virgin Mary and Child, from landscapes to nude men—poured forth from his studio in such quantity that he had little time to paint...

...The result is all suggestion—we are invited to make our own associations, write our own scenarios...

...Lettered rather tentatively and smudged over as if by time, the names are whispered reminders, catalysts for one's own associations...

...If, for example, you have ever witnessed the evisceration of a chicken—pink flesh, magenta blood clots, amber fat —you will understand the impact of his series entitled "Nine Discourses on Commodus" (one of the most brutal Roman emperors, ca...

...the softer ground allowed him to draw directly and freely on the plate instead of tracing his drawings...

...In addition, he retouched the etched plate with a burin and a dry point stylus, creating still another quality of line...

...For instance, a '60s series that includes "Bay of Naples," "Empire of Flora," "Return from Parnassus," and "The Italians," evokes the Mediterranean landscape—endless space, rock-strewn hills and warm amber light...

...In fact, some of the critical writings produced in connection with this exhibit seem to draw the conclusion that the traumas of his life—the death of his mother, of his first son, of his two baby daughters, and of his beloved Saskia?stimulated his interest in Biblical themes...

...180...

...His works lack images, composition or deliberate arrangements...

...He added extra wax to the varnish...

...The same essays go on to presume that he found in certain Biblical characters parallels to his own life...

...Some plates were reworked through as many as seven stages...

...His involvement with the timeless notwithstanding, Twombly gives us momentary pleasures, not lasting art...

...We have evidence of the monetary implications of the religious etchings in the example of "Christ's Ministry," better known as the Hundred Guilder Print for its going price...

...The Metropolitan exhibit is not overly illuminating on Rembrandt's contributions to the art, but it does present some of his etchings as they appeared in their first and last stage...

...But it is to assert that for Rembrandt subject matter was secondary and form primary...

...We see, too, evidence of how devoutly he studied the older masters for composition and other esthetic considerations: There is a self-portrait derived from a study of a Raphael painting, an etching of "The Last Supper" based on the Leonardo version, an etching of the Holy Family adapted from a Manteg-na "Madonna of Humility...

...Esthetically, the difference between etching and engraving is in the control of the line and the richness of the color...

...Although the artist provides specific clues to his heroic and legendary subject matter in the titles and in the paintings themselves, we carry away precious little...

...The advantage of etching is that the copper is covered with a fairly soft blanket of varnish...

...Next, the plate is given an acid bath, excavating the exposed lines...

...That is why Rembrandt's work will survive for many more hundreds of years, while Abstract Expressionism may rate only a small paragraph in the history of art...

...In other paintings, he employs names—either directly on the canvas or in the title—such as Bacchus, Epithal-amium, Orpheus, Pan, etc., to achieve his effects...

...It would be unfortunate, however, if the theme of the show led viewers to infer that Rembrandt was more involved with the Bible than with other subjects...

...Instead, using oil paint, pencil and crayon, Twombly scratches, scrawls, smudges, strokes, erases, and deposits blobs of paint on his canvas in what appears to be a trance...

...Twombly is more dependent on his subject matter, even though his mode is wholly nonfigurative...

...Finally, since the technique of mezzo-tints—for creating half-tone areas—was not known at the time, he produced a wide variety of tones by arduous manipulation of lines and by hatchings...

...There are canvases where you might have no associations to bring...

...the second, at the Whitney, is a retrospective of Cy Twombly, the Abstract Expressionist whose most recent work alludes to classical history and mythology (both through June 10...

...When the varnish ground is removed, the plate inked and wiped clean, the etched lines retain the ink...

...E JL^tching, a comparatively new phenomenon in Rembrandt's day, was originally intended as an alternative to the more laborious and demanding printing method, engraving...

...But there are no conventional artistic skills or esthetic refinements worth remarking on...

...Twombly studied art in this country in the late '40s and '50s, the height of 'DISCOURSE ON COMMODUS VII' the Abstract Expressionist movement, and since '57 he has lived in Rome...

...Twombly's explosions of color that suggest bursting guts, the solemn gray backgrounds that bring to mind classic monuments, and a few mathematical notations on the canvas, add up to an image of Ancient Rome encompassing its most savage depths and most civilized heights...

...In the last analysis, it is the magnitude of his vision, the heroic scale of his compositions, his dynamic and dramatic light patterns, and his exquisite skill —especially in the etchings—that make his content important...

...Ironically, of the two painters, Rembrandt, for all his specific depiction of people and places, is most concerned with abstract matters of form and esthetics...

...The flow remained constant—in number and variety—during his 30s, when he suffered the loss of his three infant children and Saskia within a period of eight years...

...It is no surprise, therefore, that his work reflects the influence of both environments...

...Clearly, though, he employed Biblical subjects long before the tragedies befell him...

...Such devotion to formal problems leads me to the conclusion that there was more sweat than tears even in Rembrandt's most passionate subject matter...

...True, you might be able to abandon yourself to sensations of color and texture, and drift along in what Zen-oriented souls would describe as a oneness with the work...

...These are very dubious notions...

...The Rembrandt etchings, on the other hand, will last forever...

...wo shows now running in New York that are hundreds of years apart historically and esthetically, nevertheless are closely related in largeness of theme...