Auckland Art Gallery

AUCKLAND CITY ART GALLERY
QUARTERLY
NUMBER TWENTY —1961
EDITORIAL As our Old Master collection has increased so much recently, we are building five more mobile walls for the Mackelvie Gallery. Space now, in the Gallery, is at a premium. It was therefore encouraging to learn that it is intended that the New Library building is to commence next year. The present library rooms will provide us with adequate space for many years to come. REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (1606-1669) Dutch CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA (Cover) Etching 121 x 106mm H. 122 II Signed Rembrandt f. 1634 This etching was purchased, with others noticed in a previous issue, this year. Rembrandt produced two separate etchings — this one and another in 1657, and a painting (Berlin Dahlem) in 1655. Different in composition, the two etchings also show a marked difference in the artist's conception of this meeting. Our print shows a wholly humanist relationship between Christ and the woman — as it were, a tete a tete. In the later one this is changed: the spirituality of Christ is more evident, and the woman more withdrawn.		In 1634, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh who had a considerable dowry, which provided the artist, for a brief few years, a pleasurable existence. He was an enthusiastic collector, buying paintings and etchings-particularly by Italian artists — and his work of this period often reflects the influence of his collection. The present etching indeed is clearly based on an Italian model. Valentiner suggests Moretto's work at Bergamo, but Munz, more convincingly, suggests an engraving by Girolamo Olgiati, who was an imitator of Cornelis Cort in Venice in the 1570s. It is not surprising therefore to find certain similarities between Olgiati's work (repr. Munz: The Etchings of Rembrandt II p. 95) and that of Guido Reni. Annibale Carracci had made visit to Venice in 1585. and his brother Agostino had been there earlier in 1581-2. It interesting, therefore, to see that the new humanist naturalism of Bologna and Venice had still a significant influence on Rembrandt in the 1630s. GUIDO RENI (1 575-1642) Italian CHRIST AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN Engraving 285 x 410 B 52 II Purchased 1955

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