0:00

[ Background Conversations ]

0:10

> Dr Stephanie Dickey: Our next presentation
is by two scholars who have joined us from Leiden University, Jef
Schaeps and Mart van Duijn.

0:18

Jef Schaeps studied art history at the
universities of Groningen and Leiden and is presently curator of prints and
drawings at Leiden University Libraries.

0:27

And Mart van Duijn has an education in
history and archival science and holds a PhD

0:33

in the field of medieval book history. He’s currently curator of Western manuscripts
and archives at Leiden University Libraries.

0:41

Leiden incidentally was founded in 1585, it’s
the oldest — that’s the right date is it?

0:47

1575, sorry about
that, I am numerically challenged. In any case, the oldest university
in the Netherlands,

0:54

similarly Queen’s is one of the oldest in Canada. So we’re very grateful to welcome them here.

1:01

For probably the last century or more
scholars have been combing the archives

1:06

in the Netherlands looking for something
new about Rembrandt and you would think that after all this time it would
be impossible to find anything new.

1:16

But believe it or not these two
gentlemen have done so and we’re going to hear from them about that now.

1:21

They’re going to speak to us in tandem
and I believe Jef will go first.

1:29

[ Applause ]

1:36

> Dr. Mart van Duijn: So let’s see. Actually I’m Mart van Duijn so I’m
going first, Jef will be second.

1:41

First of all I would like to thank Jacquelyn
Coutre although she isn’t

1:48

here for the invitation to speak
at this special Rembrandt event. And also much thanks to Max Valsamas, and also Stephanie Dickey

1:58

for the excellent preparations and the warm welcome. We’ve been treated yesterday to a
tour at the special collections here

2:07

and a dinner even, so thank you very much. Together with Jef I will be discussing
the education of the genius Rembrandt

2:16

and particularly his time at Leiden University. And it is well-known that Rembrandt
first enrolled at university on the 20th

2:25

of May 1620, it’s a well-known fact. And the register containing this
matriculation is kept in the university archives

2:33

at Leiden University library
and it’s the oldest document that directly relates to Rembrandt himself.

2:41

Earlier this year Jef and I went through the
university archives preparing for an exhibition

2:47

on 444 years of Leiden University, so university
was founded in 1575, the 8th of February.

2:57

And we wondered whether also Rembrandt might
be found in our so-called recension lists.

3:04

These are the registrations of
students for every following year in order to continue their studies.

3:11

And these are documents that are not so
well-known as our matriculation registers.

3:17

And on the recension list for 1622, which is
actually the only one we have for the period

3:24

of 1608 to 1648, we discovered Rembrandt’s
rematriculation so to speak which is now

3:31

in fact the second oldest existing
document relating to Rembrandt. So we have the two first documents related,
we are very proud of it you can understand.

3:41

It proves that Rembrandt must have
studied at Leiden in 1622 as well

3:46

and probably also the year before. We made our discovery known to the
public through a small publication

3:54

which is available here this afternoon, and obviously through the
website of Leiden University.

4:00

And it was quickly picked up by the
Dutch press de Volkskrant over here. You probably don’t read Dutch but the second —

4:08

it’s also internationally,
it made an impact here. You’ll see a tweet by Simon Schama
saying wow this makes perfect sense,

4:17

he’s sometimes thought as a virtuoso of feeling. And he compares Rembrandt to
Velazquez, Rubens and Michelangelo.

4:30

Rembrandt’s rematriculation is a new fact in the
biography of the young Rembrandt and it opens

4:37

up possibilities for speculating
about his education, and it might actually even
provide a new perspective.

4:46

The question is what does Rembrandt’s
time, extended time at university mean for our understanding of him as a painter?

4:53

Can we see this reflected in his paintings? And we hope to provide a very modest
insight into that matter today.

5:01

We will in fact be subsequently discussing
Rembrandt as a Leiden student, that’s my part,

5:08

and Rembrandt as a painter, Jef’s part. So until recently we only had this, the only
known document regarding Rembrandt’s education,

5:19

the register with his matriculation
of the 20th of May 1620.

5:24

And at the time the rector
magnificus, the principal himself, was responsible for the registration
of students.

5:32

And in 1620 this was Reinerus Bontius
professor of medicine at Leiden University.

5:41

And the act itself took place at the
academy building which is still in use today

5:47

and here it’s marked on a bird’s-eye
view map by Peter Bost from 1600.

5:54

And it’s an interesting map because you can see
the buildings very well but it’s also the map that comes most close to Leiden looking
as it looked around Rembrandt’s birth.

6:08

And I must say the map of the Agnes, the digital
map looks even better so if you have a chance

6:18

to take a look it’s in the exhibition as well but you can also take a look
at home on your own computer.

6:25

The rector, the principal had his
office in the academy building and that’s where he would receive students.

6:31

And he asked the students for his name, study
of choice, the name of his landlord or landlady,

6:37

and his address and he wrote this down in this
matriculation register which you can see here.

6:45

Also Rembrandt in 1620 gave his name Rembrandus
Hermanni Leydensis and then his preferred study

6:53

of choice, studiosus litterarum so
he wanted to study arts, artes in that time.

6:58

Annorum veertien so he gave 14 as his age
which is a false age actually if we keep

7:06

on his birthdate as 15 of July 1606,
he was actually 13 at that time.

7:13

And he might have given a false age because
he wanted to avoid any inconveniences

7:19

because the rector earlier had
barred younger boys younger than 14

7:26

from studying at Leiden University. And it was also known that upcoming
students would have to swear an oath

7:34

and you were only allowed to swear
this oath if you were 14 years or older or else you would have to come
back later to still swear the oath.

7:42

So it could very well be that Rembrandt
only two months from his birthday just said

7:49

to the rector okay I’m 14 years old. And it also states where he lived with his
parents which was actually at the Weddesteeg

7:57

where his father also had his windmill. And the original houses at
the Weddesteeg have been demolished,

8:06

there are now I believe terrible
apartment buildings from the 70’s

8:14

or 80’s so there’s nothing to be seen
of Rembrandt’s original birth house. But the city archives of Leiden made this
digital reconstruction and it’s worth

8:25

to pay their website a visit, they’re called
E-L-O-E-L-O not the band but the Erfgoed Leiden en ostreken.

8:32

And there you can really walk
through Rembrandt’s birth house.

8:37

And on this picture at the right it’s
actually the house with the cart in front.

8:43

So this is what the Weddesteeg
looked like around Rembrandt’s birth.

8:49

At matriculation Rembrandt had to pay 15
Stivers, in those days a considerable amount

8:55

but no obstacle for Rembrandt’s father he
had a successful business, he was a miller, and he had also inherited
half the street you see here.

9:06

In exchange for the 15 Stivers
Rembrandt was allowed to attend lectures and possibly also make use
of the university’s library.

9:15

But matriculation also gave other benefits which
are also well-known and play an important role

9:22

of our understanding of Rembrandt as student. Students were exempt from taxes on beer
and wine, they didn’t have to pay toll

9:31

in the province of Holland, they didn’t
have to serve in the city’s watch. And as a young boy you can
imagine that is very important not

9:41

to have to serve in the city’s watch. And students fell under the
jurisdiction of an academic court

9:46

which was prone to punish students mildly.

9:52

And the fact that for a long time
we only had this first matriculation and the benefits involved
obviously led to the assumption

10:01

that Rembrandt didn’t really
study at Leiden University. Furthermore his matriculation might have
followed from his time at the Latin School

10:11

in Leiden shown here and where pupils
mostly aged 13 or 14 in their last year

10:17

of school were automatically
enrolled at university. And this building as you
can see still exists today.

10:27

Another source on Rembrandt’s education is the
description by Jan Jarsz. Orlers of the city

10:33

of Leiden and its famous inhabitants first
published in 1614 and obviously Rembrandt isn’t

10:39

in there yet because he was
probably seven or eight at that time, still very much an ordinary Leiden school boy.

10:46

And in the second edition, the edition of
1641, Rembrandt already lived in Amsterdam

10:57

and had already painted several masterpieces. And in this second edition Orlers
devotes almost…almost a full page to Rembrandt.

11:07

And it’s actually the first Rembrandt biography
and it turned out to be an important source

11:13

for almost all later Rembrandt biographies. And regarding Rembrandt’s education Orlers
mentions that Rembrandt didn’t want to go

11:22

to school but rather drew and painted. And for that reason, and this is in Dutch.

11:27

[ Foreign Language ]

11:38

So according to Orlers his parents took him
out of school to be apprenticed to a painter, the painter Jacob van Swanenburgh.

11:44

So this information combining
with only the first matriculation of 1620 has marked Rembrandt
as a university dropout.

11:56

But now we have Rembrandt’s
rematriculation in recension list of 1622.

12:03

Whereas first year students
could enrol throughout the year, rematriculation was only
possible in February of each year.

12:12

And the names of all known
students were recorded beforehand, arranged alphabetically on first name.

12:17

So when a student came to the rector’s office,
the principal’s office the principal only had to look up the student’s name
and put a mark in front of it

12:25

to say okay this student is ready
for another year of studies.

12:31

And here you see Rembrandt’s
rematriculation with his first name Rembrandus

12:38

which is visually much more pleasing than
the first matriculation as you can imagine

12:45

because this has his full name, it’s quite
large in the original as well, so Rembrandus.

12:51

Then some additional information such as his age
which you can see just right from the asterisk,

12:57

14 crossed out and changed to 15. So probably when Rembrandt came to the
rector and the rector asked after his age

13:07

and he probably said oh you’re 14 boy? No I’m 15 sir, the principal changed it to 15.

13:13

And actually this age is 15
if we keep 15th of July 1606

13:19

as his actual birthday makes sense it
would actually be 15 in February of 1622.

13:29

And it also states his last name Hermanni
and then bij zijn ouders so he still lived

13:35

at his parents at the Weddesteeg. And the little asterisk in the front, the mark
most to the left, is actually the most important

13:47

because this indicates that
Rembrandt actually did rematriculate, he did want to have another year of studies.

13:57

So here we have proof Rembrandt did not
only matriculate for the first year but also

14:04

for subsequent years and that means
at least three years of studies, 1620,

14:09

1621 but we don’t have the recension
list for that year, and 1622.

14:15

Did he study hard? We don’t know but his rematriculation urges
us to reconsider our understanding or our view

14:24

of Rembrandt as student and it undermines
the idea of Rembrandt as dropout.

14:30

And one of the most important
arguments for that theory was that for a long time we only
had this first matriculation

14:37

but now we have a new document,
actually a new fact.

14:42

And although Orlers describes Rembrandt’s
parents taking him out of school,

14:47

he doesn’t mention which school
and he doesn’t mention when. So the question that remains, does this
new fact also offer a new perspective?

14:58

Did it influence Rembrandt as a painter? And this is where I leave the stage
and give the work to my colleague Jef.

15:09

[ Applause ]

15:16

> Dr. Jef Schaeps: Yes, thank you Mart and indeed the question now is what is
this new information about Rembrandt,

15:23

this detail from his biography what
does it mean and what does it imply and does it tell us something
about his artistic career later on?

15:32

Is it possible to see from his art in later
years that he had an academic training?

15:37

Well it’s difficult to give an answer to
these questions I can tell you right away.

15:44

There’s a lot of things we do not
know, we do know that he matriculated

15:49

and that he rematriculated two years later
and probably also in the year in between.

15:55

But did this imply that he was a
diligent student, that he was industrious? Did he go to class every
day or at least every week?

16:03

Did he mingle with other students? Did he talk to scholars, to professors? Did he read books or not?

16:10

These are all things we do not know and I could
end my story here and leave and that’s it.

16:16

But I will try to at least tell you a
few things I think are quite certain.

16:23

Once a Dutch author, well famous in Holland
but not so much elsewhere, Gerrit Komrij.

16:30

He wrote about the study of
art history and he sold well.

16:37

Doubt and uncertainty that’s like the
essence of art history and indeed we do a lot

16:42

of attributions and use the word perhaps and
maybe and we hope and it could have been.

16:49

Still I hope — well maybe we should be a
little bit more precise and more concrete,

16:54

so I will try to do that a little bit today. Well what we do know for sure is that Rembrandt
spent a few years at university and before

17:03

that a few years at the Latin school. Well Latin schools had a purpose
first of all to learn Latin.

17:10

So it is quite sure that Rembrandt must have
known Latin otherwise he would not have been

17:16

admitted to the university. And what we also know for sure is
that he was used to the use of books

17:24

which is well quite normal you might say but not
every boy of his age in Leiden was using books.

17:32

So he knew Latin, he must have read some of
the authors they used to like for example Ovid

17:37

or Virgil or Horace, they did not
read these books from cover to cover but at least they read a few
chapters from books like that,

17:46

and Rembrandt must have done that as well. We don’t know exactly what professors he
met at the university but these are some

17:56

of the candidates he might have met. These were professors who were active in the
years that Rembrandt attended university.

18:03

At the left you see Burgersdijck,
mathematician, in the middle Erpenius,

18:08

professor of oriental languages and an important
printer as well, and on the right Vossius

18:15

who was a classicist so a
philologist studied Greek and Latin.

18:21

These might have been the people Rembrandt
talked to or from whom he received classes.

18:27

And Leiden there was very much the spirit life
of this man, this is Scaliger and Scaliger was

18:35

in his days one of the most famous scholars
in Europe but he had passed away in 1609.

18:42

He was French by origin but was
in Leiden for a few years at invitation of the Leiden University.

18:49

But he was still his spirit was very much alive
and this is a print where you see the library

18:56

in Leiden in the days of Rembrandt. And at the right you see a bookcase which
contains the legacy, the bequest of Scaliger.

19:07

So even if he didn’t meet Scaliger anymore
himself because he had passed away, he could still see that Scaliger
was a very important scholar

19:15

since his books were still
there in the library to consult. Well we don’t know of course if
Rembrandt went to the library a lot

19:23

but the library was not even
that much open to students

19:29

because well there were thefts as we know. Books in those days were chained to
the shelves but still books disappeared

19:36

and so there was a period that students were
not permitted to the university library. But well perhaps he visited sometimes.

19:45

But he really studied a lot,
we just don’t know I’m afraid.

19:53

This is a wonderful painting by Rembrandt which
was painted around 1630-31, it’s not dated

20:04

but this is the art historical
date that’s set to it. It’s part of the collection of the museum in
Berlin but at this moment it’s hanging in Leiden

20:14

on an exhibition called Young Rembrandt,
Rising Star in Museum De Lakenhal.

20:24

And it’s a mythological scene and
represents Pluto abducting Prosperina.

20:31

And you see Prosperina and Pluto
in the middle in the centre of the scene and Pluto has grabbed her.

20:40

And well she’s about to be dragged to the
underworld and well she’s not very fond of that

20:46

so she’s resisting ferociously
and scratching his face. In the front you see the
horses who draw the carriage

20:55

but at the back you see there are several
women trying to keep Prosperina on the earth.

21:02

And one of them at least should represent Diana
because you can see the crescent on her head

21:09

which is a way to identify Diana. In the top you see this wonderful blue which
is really shiny almost if you see the painting.

21:21

But this is a story which can be found in Ovid.

21:26

And we know for sure that he had read of
it like all the boys in the Latin School.

21:32

You didn’t have to go to university
to read Ovid so he knew that already. But this is one of the paintings which has been
described by an American scholar Amy Golahny

21:45

who has written about the library and the
books of Rembrandt, Rembrandt’s Reading.

21:50

I don’t know exactly again when the
book was published but I think it was around the year 2000, maybe
even just before 2000.

21:57

And she has written about first, well
what books did Rembrandt own and secondly,

22:03

can we see in the paintings Rembrandt made
a bit about the books he must have read.

22:08

And then she writes about this painting
and of course she says yeah Ovid is one

22:14

of the main sources for this painting. There’s another source and
that’s the Roman poet Claudian.

22:21

Claudian had written a poem especially
about this mythological event.

22:27

And the women who are grabbing the
clothes of Prosperina only figure in the poem by Claudian and not in Ovid.

22:35

So she says he must have
combined these two stories. I’ll just get a glass of water.

22:59

So but Claudian like Ovid was an author
you could have read at the Latin school

23:04

but then Amy Golahny says well
actually there’s still a third author which maybe has been consulted
by Rembrandt and that’s Scaliger.

23:13

Not the Scaliger you just saw who was
a professor in Leiden but his father who was called Julius Caesar Scaliger,

23:20

a French scholar who wrote a book
called — what’s it called again?

23:25

Poetices libri septem and that’s like
a comparative mythological handbook.

23:32

He compares various mythological
sources and writes about them.

23:38

And according to Golahny that’s the
book that Rembrandt must have used. Of course that’s not something
that can be proven

23:45

but if he did then that’s something
he must have learnt at university because Scaliger was definitely not read
at the Latin School, that’s too difficult,

23:55

well too highbrow literature
for boys in the Latin School.

24:01

So that might be here a sign that oh
Rembrandt did do some serious studying

24:08

at Leiden University. The point is that of everything that Scaliger
writes about this myth Amy Golahny singles

24:19

out only the things that Ovid and
Claudian wrote about the myth.

24:26

And that’s actually something
he didn’t need Scaliger for he could have learnt
that already in Latin school.

24:32

So there’s still quite a lot of uncertainty. And this is a painting which was in the
possession of the stadtholder of the republic.

24:43

Jonathan mentioned him already Frederik Hendrik
who is like the governor of the Netherlands.

24:48

And there was a mediator because the governor
did not come, Frederik Hendrik did not come

24:53

to the workshop but he had Constantijn Huygens,
his secretary who came to his workshop.

24:59

And Constantijn Huygens was a very scholarly man
and he might also have been someone who talks

25:05

about this myth with Rembrandt and gave hints
to what the iconography should have been.

25:12

So in this case this is one of the
paintings which Amy Golahny uses

25:18

and said well this might be an
indication that he receives higher study, that he did some serious
studying at Leiden University.

25:26

But I’m afraid I do not agree completely
because I think first of all this already —

25:32

well it contains knowledge that he could
have gathered already on the Latin School and besides that he had some external help.

25:40

Well what about the other paintings
he made in his Leiden period? Okay this is a very famous series,
actually the first paintings we can connect

25:50

to Rembrandt dated 1624, maybe already
1625 three scenes from the five senses.

25:59

The one in the middle is in Leiden, the other
two are in New York in the Leiden collection.

26:05

Is there anything in these scenes
which looks academic to you?

26:11

Probably not would be my guess. Then this scene, this is a painting
from a little bit later 1626,

26:23

I think it’s usually dated in the
Leiden museum, De Lakenhal,

26:29

well it has always been a bit
unclear what the scene is exactly. Quite recently like two weeks ago an
article was published in a Dutch newspaper

26:38

by a woman Helda von Helm [assumed spelling]. She has said — because there have been multiple
identifications of what the story represents.

26:49

None has been ever satisfactory
and now this Helda von Helm comes and says well I now finally know what
it means and it’s a story of a scene

26:57

from the story of Joseph and Jacob. The person we see standing there with
his sceptre that’s actually Joseph.

27:04

Well I don’t know if she’s right but it’s an
interesting option but of course the story

27:09

of Joseph and Jacob well you
didn’t need an academic training for that you could just grab the Bible
and everyone had a Bible at home.

27:18

So this is another painting, this is dated
1626 in Museum Lyon and that’s

27:25

like a pendant painting to the one we just saw. This has always been identified
as a stoning of Stephen

27:35

but this Helda von Helm says also this
is not Stephen this is Joseph we see with his brothers stoning him.

27:41

Well I don’t know if that’s exactly
true I leave that to other people but I still think these are not paintings that
prove that Rembrandt had an academic training.

27:55

So these are two of his earliest etchings, the one on right is often considered
the first etching Rembrandt made,

28:02

the one on the left the second. There’s still a lot of issues here, you can see

28:09

that he’s well not yet mastered
the art of etching.

28:14

There are strange things in the anatomy of
the figures and in the spacing of the figures.

28:21

But these of course are biblical
scenes so whatever Rembrandt did

28:28

as an academic training it did not
reflect immediately in his art.

28:33

Now you have — maybe you’ve heard of the
well what you would call a topos maybe,

28:43

pictor doctus, a pictor doctus that’s
the scholarly painter you might say.

28:49

And well if Rembrandt went to university for a few years you might think well
maybe Rembrandt is a pictor doctus

28:56

because well most painters did
not have an academic training. And well you might say the archetype

29:02

of the pictor doctus that’s Rubens,
he’s always named pictor doctus. You know Rubens he had breakfast with scholarly
humanists that’s something Rembrandt never did

29:14

as far as we know. But this is a late, late self-portrait by Rembrandt,

29:21

the Kenwood self-portrait in
the Kenwood House in London.

29:27

It’s somewhere from 66 to 69 in that period
and it’s one of the few self-portraits

29:34

in which he identifies himself as an artist because most self-portraits he does not hold
brushes or anything like that but here he does.

29:43

So he’s immediately recognizable as an artist. And in the background, you see two semi-circles,
it’s not exactly clear what this is.

29:53

But this is well if there ever has been
a painting in Rembrandt’s oeuvre which has been described or interpreted as a
painting which proves that Rembrandt was a bit

30:07

of an intellectual artist, very self-conscious about his profession then
it is I think this painting.

30:16

But still well we don’t know exactly about the
meaning of the circles has never been untangled,

30:24

there’s no definite interpretation for that. And does it mean that Rembrandt really
portrayed himself as a scholarly artist?

30:34

I don’t think so. So well one more painting that this is Minerva.

30:42

If you go and see the exhibition you
will see that there’s also a Minerva in the exhibition not by Rembrandt but by
one of his first pupils de Jouderville.

30:53

And well Minerva is also of course she’s like
the mark or the logo of Leiden University.

31:01

This was painted while he was
still living in Leiden around 1630. Well does this mean that he had a
special affiliation to the university,

31:10

did he paint Minerva because of that? I don’t know. To wind up, what does it mean that
Rembrandt spent a longer period at university

31:22

and was he indeed a serious student? It’s difficult to say.

31:28

I don’t see that his biography will
change immediately because of that.

31:34

Of course it’s a new fact in his
biography, he did spend three years. And had he died say in 1623 then he
would have been remembered like a student

31:43

of Leiden University like we had
many students at Leiden University. But it’s of course his career after that
that always drew the most attention.

31:56

But we do not see at least
in my view in his painting

32:01

or in his other artworks we see
something of an academic training.

32:07

Well this is Leiden University
where all these documents are kept, you see the small self-portrait which is also

32:14

in the exhibition has been
blown up to a giant screen.

32:19

A few weeks ago Mart and I held this same
lecture in Dutch for an audience in Leiden

32:26

and after it a man came up to us and
said well, I’m so happy now to know

32:32

that well Rembrandt spent
a few years at university. But I’m a bit disappointed about the outcome
and that it didn’t mean that much in his career.

32:42

Well unfortunately we cannot make
it into much more at this moment. I hope you have not been disappointed and
I thank you for your attention [applause].

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