"Danae" by Rembrandt: the history of the painting and interesting facts about its creation

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the history of painting there are a number of paintings with a tragic and at the same time mysterious story. Rembrandt's Danae is one of them. Today, the painting is shown to art lovers in the hall of Dutch and Flemish paintings on the second floor of the main building of the Hermitage. For security purposes, the Danae was protected by armored glass.

You ask why such caution? On June 15, 1985, Rembrandt's Danae was attacked by a mentally ill man who doused the painting with sulfuric acid and stabbed the canvas several times. This person was a resident of Lithuania, Bronyus Maigis, who later explained the act of vandalism with political motives. The most important part of the canvas, the figure of Danae, suffered the most.

The restoration lasted 12 long years, and on October 14, 1997, Rembrandt's Danae took its place of honor in the Hermitage hall.

The history of the painting goes back to 1636. The canvas is written according to the history of the ancient Greek myth about Danae, this plot was played up by many famous artists. Storytells about the beautiful Danae, whom her own father, the king of the ancient Greek city of Argos, imprisoned in a dungeon. He was afraid of a prophecy that said that he would die at the hands of his grandson, who would be called Perseus. But, in spite of everything, the god Zeus, having turned into a golden rain, entered the dungeon. Soon the beautiful Danae gave birth to a son, Perseus.

Rembrandt loved his wife Saskia van Uilenbürch very reverently and very often painted her on his canvases. "Danae" by Rembrandt was no exception, the artist painted this picture not for sale. The canvas did not leave the walls of his house until the auction sale of all his property in 1656. Art researchers were lost in various guesses why the resemblance to Saskia in this picture was not as obvious as in other paintings by the master of this period. The style of painting spoke of a later period of his work.

Only in the middle of the last century, with the advent of fluoroscopy, restorers managed to lift the veil of this mystery. The pictures showed that in fact the artist rewrote it after the death of his wife. The portrait of a woman on the bottom layer of the painting bore a strong resemblance to Saxia. Later, he fell in love with another woman, the nurse of his son Gertje Dirks, so the images of two beloved women were combined in Danae.

It is also interesting that when painting the golden rain (in the picture below) and the golden light that we see now, the artist mixed crushed amber into oil paint.

Rembrandt's "Danaë" came to the Hermitage at a time when tsars were patrons of museums, with the help of whichcollections were made. In 1772, the painting was bought by Empress Catherine II along with part of the once large art collection of Baron Crozat in France. This painting has been considered one of the main masterpieces of the Hermitage for centuries.

One must know and remember that one of the greatest Dutch painters of the golden age is Rembrandt. "Danae" is not the only painting by the artist that suffered from vandals. In the last century, Rembrandt's Night Watch suffered three attacks. Therefore, museum staff are forced to resort to measures such as armored glass.