Rembrandt van Rijn, the most famous Dutch artist of the 17th century, enjoyed international fame in his final years. Newly discovered documents in the city of Genoa reveal that Rembrandt received a commission to adorn two altarpieces for a wealthy Italian nobleman, just three years before his death. The letters give a new insight into the personal life of Rembrandt, which is poorly documented.

is the nobleman in question, who, in 1666 commissioned Rembrandt to paint two "modelli", or oil paint designs, basically scaled-down drafts in colour, for the Saulis' family church in the village of Carignano near Turin. One of them depicts the Ascension of Mary, according to the documents discovered by Professor Lauro Magnani in the Sauli family archives. 

Ambition
"It was a large order, indeed", says art historian Bob van den Boogert, curator of Amsterdam's Rembrandt House museum.

"He had told his patrons that he wanted to produce work of the highest standards, so that his name would become known in Italy. Apparently, that was still an ambition of his up until his death."

Italy had established itself as the centre of the arts, thanks to the great masters like Da Vinci and Caravaggio with his thunderous use of light and shade and dramatic figures filling the picture surface. Many painters travelled to Italy, but not Rembrandt, although he had sold one of his earlier paintings to Antonio Ruffo from Messina in Sicily.

Reputation
In the same period as the commission from Genoa, Rembrandt painted a portrait for Cosimo III of the de Medici Family in Florence, which indicates a certain degree of fame in Italy, concludes Bob van den Boogert. His graphic work, including his etchings, was certainly much acclaimed and his mastery in this field undisputed. Because it could be reproduced, it was much more widely seen than his oeuvre of paintings.

The commission from the Sauli family came ten years after Rembrandt had run into financial difficulties:

"Here is again more evidence which dispels the myth of Rembrandt's last years as an impoverished, debt-ridden artist and supports the belief that Rembrandt remained popular at home and abroad, receiving commissioned work until the end of his life. And that's what makes this discovery so important", explains Bob van den Boogert.

Unpredictable
The commission for the two paintings from Genoa was passed onto Rembrandt through the shipmaster Viviano, assisted by two Amsterdam merchants, Voet and Benzi, who promised to oversee the whole process. When Rembrandt didn't keep to his agreements on delivery and price, the merchants complained: "They work really slowly and as is usually the case with artists, this man is quite unpredictable and his word is not reliable."

Meanwhile Captain Viviano, whose merchant vessel was waiting in the port of Amsterdam at the end of the winter, wrote to Sauli:

"He's now asked for 3,000 guilders for both paintings, while he originally agreed 1,200. He is not dependable, which doesn't surprise me, as artists are not true to their word."

This was not the first voice of complaint when it came to Rembrandt's volatile nature. But Bob van den Boogert does add that six months production time was quite acceptable at the time, especially for Rembrandt, who was used to working on several works simultaneously.


A very slim chance
The two sample paintings were finally finished in February 1667, instead of August 1666. According to the Genoese documents, the figure paid to Rembrandt was 1,023 guilders and 15 cents. "This is a huge amount of money for two small paintings. Especially if he had gotten the follow-up commission, it would have meant thousands of guilders, which goes to show that in the latter years of his life, Rembrandt was still receiving commissions of standing and obviously, greatly admired", says the Rembrandt House museum's curator.

It's not known what happened to the two paintings. It's even questionable whether they ever arrived in Genoa, as Captain Viviano's ship sunk off the coast of England at the end of 1667. Rembrandt himself died in 1669. Bob van den Boogert:

"Who knows, maybe the paintings will turn up, but the chance of that happening is very slight. This work would not have gone unnoticed before."

Prof Lauro Magnani presented the results of his findings in the Rembrandt House museum in Amsterdam.

*RNW Translation (jn)

[Copyright Radio Netherlands]