Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present the productive interplay of connoisseurship and material analysis when dealing with drawings by Rembrandt – or previously attributed to him – in the collection of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. This concerns the more precise determination of the drawing materials used and the reconstruction of the genesis of the drawings discussed. The material analysis allows us to decide whether and how Rembrandt’s inks can be used to determine authorship at all. The “material turn” in drawing studies thus intervenes in the discussion about authorship and opens up a broader production aesthetic perspective. No longer the “style” but rather the handeling becomes the decisive criterion for answering the question “Rembrandt, or not?”
Photo Credits: 1, 3–5, 8, 12, 15–19, 21, 23–25, 27, 30 © Carsten Wintermann, Weimar. — 2 © Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. — 6 © Georg Dietz, Dresden. — 7, 13 © Antje Penz, Berlin. — 9 © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre), photo: Thierry Le Mage. — 10, 11 © Bayonne, musée Bonnat-Helleu, photo: A. Vaquero. — 14, 29 © Oliver Hahn, Berlin. — 20 © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre), photo: Stéphane Maréchalle. — 22, 31 © Berlin, Staatliche Museen – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, photo: Jörg P. Anders. — 26 © Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. — 28, 33 © Berlin, Staatliche Museen – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, photo: Dietmar Katz. — 32 © London, The Trustees of the British Museum. — 34 © Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung. — 35 © Berlin, Staatliche Museen – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, photo: Volker-H. Schneider.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
