In the current issue of Virginia Quarterly Review we’ve got a great piece about Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.” I say that as if I’d ever seen the painting before. In fact, this was the last (well, second-to-last) article that I read in the winter issue, but I shouldn’t have put it off. Author Harry Berger Jr. explains why portraiture is almost inherently ridiculous, along the way providing insights on European wars, the Haarlem military, and how the Reformation resulted in an atomic family structure which, in turn created feminism as we know it (!). It’s a great read.
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That was a brilliant article. My only frustration was that the accompanying photographs weren’t clearer. I suppose there’s no substitute for seeing it in person.
I was also happy to see Spielberg taken apart in another essay in that issue.
I did my best, but there’s always that tradeoff between download size and quality. (Like with this 1,000 x 1,200 px, 183k image of the work in question.) I erred towards quality but, as you point out, there’s just no substitute for seeing it person, or at least a high-quality print.