International Acclaim: The Second Phase

Abstract

It can be demonstrated that Rembrandt was held in high esteem outside of the Netherlands during the last decades of his life. In neighboring Flanders, Cornelius de Bie, in his Het Gulden Cabinet, published in Antwerp in 1661, had nothing but bombastic praise for Rembrandt’s compositions, portraits and etchings.1 Rembrandt’s Dutch critics, up to this date, also praised these facets of his work; but not one of them mentioned all of them in a single breath. Hofstede de Groot wrote: Vermuthlich kannte de Bie dies Alles nur vom Horensagen.2 If this is true, we can conclude Rembrandt’s reputation was such that a Flemish writer penning a critique of the Dutch painter around 1660 immediately thought of his ordonnantien, conterfeytsels and work on the copre plaet. De Groot’s assumption that De Bie probably wrote from hearsay gains weight when we learn that the painting by Rembrandt which the Fleming singled out for praise was Samson’s Wedding Feast, painted in 1638. This painting, it will be recalled, was the one Philips Angel applauded in an address he gave in Leiden in 1641 and which was published in 1642.3 De Bie also recalled this fact; he repeated in Het Gulden Cabinet what Angel had said about the painting twenty years earlier.4 If De Bie was familiar with Rembrandt’s work and if he was impressed by it, he would not have had to use Angel’s words and ideas.