EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Rembrandt’s Hand

We have already seen (in Donatello’s Davids and Goliaths) that Donatello identified with both David and Goliath. Both his giants (in the marble and bronze versions) have double vision, out-sight and insight, the two forms conveyed by one eye open and the other closed. Giorgione and Michelangelo identified with both David and Goliath as well, as you can see in separate entries, and Caravaggio too. Four giants of art identifying with both victim and victor in the same story. Now comes Rembrandt. A Hyatt Mayor wrote in reference to the early etching above that: “the boy David, who alone of the army dared take up the challenge of single combat with the giant Goliath, must have reminded Rembrandt of his own daring to experiment against received opinion.”¹ He was right, of course.

The proof is not only in what we know about the history of David in art but in the history of the hand in art as well. Among the assembled ranks in Goliath’s army is a single vertical arm (detail, above right) with an open palm like Michelangelo’s two hands in the river in The Battle of Cascina. Way out of proportion, the hand here is the mark of a craftsman and the inverted hand of God. The soldier on the left may even be wearing an artist's turban and in battle too! 

Next week I will write more on Rembrandt and show that the hand of his inner craftsman is at work in other images too. You should keep a look-out for that "hand" in all art.