"Excerpts from "The Dutch Group Portrait

When the young Rembrandt left his hometown of Leyden for a short time in order to complete what remained to be learned about his art in the studios of famous Dutch masters, the precocious youth did not seek out a city such as Haarlem-the home of Frans Hals, whom we are accustomed to seeing as the pioneer of Dutch national painting at this time (the 1620s)-but Amsterdam. Here, it was likewise not the most Dutch among the portrait painters, such as Werner van Valckert or Thomas de Keyser, from whom Rembrandt believed he had something to learn, but Pieter Lastman, who had traveled to Italy. Hence the seeming paradox that Rembrandt was the true Italianist among his countrymen at that time. Among his numerous points of connection with the Italian manner, the most important was his resolute embrace, from the outset, of subordination as a principle means of expression.1 Yet Rembrandt's ultimate aspiration was nevertheless the utmost realization of the external unity with the beholding subject that we have recognized as the indispensable prerequisite and actual raison di'tre of all group portrait painting. It must have become clear to the master early on that a complete external unity-?specifically an individualized one, connecting the represented figures with the beholder-could be attained only when the internal unity, the subordination

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• Seeing Representations; or, The Hidden Master in Rembrandt's Syndics

  Benjamin Binstock•Representations•2003

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