- As a Jewish girl growing up in New York, it’s interesting that my favorite work of art is a crucifixion scene.
- For me a great work of art is something that goes beyond
- the image that it’s depicting. What Rembrandt does, that I find rather amazing is,
- he really sums up so much about humanity. It’s a familiar story that expresses universal emotion.
- Rembrandt looked at people all around him, all the time, was always sketching.
- How people stand;
- how people faint;
- how people move their head as opposed to the rest of their body.
- That’s what he introduces into a biblical subject.
- Rembrandt is able, in just a few lines, to show emotion in its most universal and simplest forms.
- From simple figures, bathed in very bright light--he shows them just in outline--
- to very detailed figures in the darkness.
- He’s playing with this alternation of dark and light.
- Rembrandt printed it on vellum, a material
- that keeps the ink hovering on the surface
- and that really beefs up the richness.
- And Rembrandt is making changes right on the surface. First he put Christ’s foot straight down then he put this head on top.
- When I look at it I see the artist at work.
- And every single impression around the world and there’s only maybe fifteen of these in existence
- looks slightly different,
- so he’s really making a painted print.
- Whenever I look at it I’m always surprised at how small it is
- cause Rembrandt packs in so much
- and when you really zero in you can see these beautiful passages of lines that could be artworks on their own.
- After looking at this for a while, I go out on the street and I look
- at people in a whole different way because you see
- them in their most elemental forms and how they express themselves.
- I can see for a little while like Rembrandt looks at people on the street.
Altered StatesNadine Orenstein
Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses, 1653
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch)
Drypoint and engraving printed on vellum; first state of five
Gift of Felix M. Warburg and his family, 1941 (41.1.31)
Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn) (Dutch)
Drypoint and engraving printed on vellum; first state of five
Gift of Felix M. Warburg and his family, 1941 (41.1.31)

