▲Rijksmuseum researchers discover new painting by Rembrandt van Rijn(rijksmuseum.nl)
138 points by ohjeez 42 days ago | 9 comments
▲crote 38 days ago
Re-attributed, to be more accurate.

The painting wasn't exactly unknown: its existence was reasonably well-documented and it was included in a variety of Rembrandt catalogues. However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it.

This discovery is a re-analysis of the painting using modern methods, which revealed that the 1960 "not a Rembrandt" decision was a bit premature.

▲skrebbel 38 days ago
> However, in 1960 it was decided that it wasn't a Rembrandt, so people mostly stopped caring about it.

I'll never understand this about the art scene. Like, if Rembrandt was a shit painter, his works wouldn't have been so valuable today. But then, suddenly, one random painting of his is only interesting if it was actually made by him? If we can judge his entire oeuvre on quality, why couldn't we do the same with this one painting? How is it possible that people stop caring about a painting just because it wasn't made by Rembrandt?

I mean, is it a good painting or not? If not, why do we suddenly care now? If it is, why didn't we before?

▲elondaits 38 days ago
Because part of the price of a work of art is its perceived historic / cultural importance. Autographs are taking this to the extreme, where only the mark of the author exists, on its own, and still gets a high price. On the other end, fakes and very accurate reproductions, would never be as valued even if the effect as a visual piece is practically the same.
▲lisper 37 days ago
NFTs are an attempt to recreate this dynamic in the digital world.
▲loloquwowndueo 38 days ago
How art is valued is entirely illogical and irrational. Like - that time an entire art installation was confused with trash and thrown out. https://i-d.co/article/museum-cleaners-thought-this-art-inst...
▲kleiba 38 days ago
Similarly to why you can pay 7-digit prices for a watch.
▲loloquwowndueo 38 days ago
At least that watch still tells the time.
▲SR2Z 37 days ago
Yeah, but mechanical watches are so much worse at telling time than cheap digital watches that it's not even worth discussing.
▲loloquwowndueo 37 days ago
Even a broken mechanical luxury watch is right twice a day. A broken digital watch with a screen is useless when it’s broken.

(I’m just trolling at this point, let me know and we can stop this)

▲SR2Z 35 days ago
Your watch won't tell you the time unless you drink a verification can
▲pas 37 days ago
obviously digital watch needs an eink screen that shows something even when it's broken :)
▲loloquwowndueo 37 days ago
It won’t be the time, it’ll be some scrensaver or an ad.
▲anal_reactor 38 days ago
I don't think it's illogical nor irrational. When you look at artworks below €5 000 then there should be correlation between artistic value and price in euros. Not exactly a linear function, but clear correlation. Above that you're not buying artwork - you're buying the prestige and social status of owning an expensive artwork. It's the rich people's equivalent of buying Supreme clothes just to impress the ladies.
▲tasuki 38 days ago
As someone who likes to hang things on walls, I'm rather happy the art prices are as insane as they are. The antiques shop down the street sometimes sells reasonably interesting and/or nice original paintings for 10-20 eur. If it's someone unknown it's gonna be dirt cheap, no matter how good. Imagine if art prices were rational, what would I do?!
▲odyssey7 38 days ago
Works of art are the original NFTs? Pricing is meme-like, though over longer timescales.
▲bell-cot 38 days ago
"It is a Rembrandt" carries heavy cache when rich men are trying to one-up each other.
▲Tepix 38 days ago
The Rijksmuseum is amazing, reserve a day on your next visit to Amsterdam and take it all in!

I also like their tech stack, they let you use your own phone + headphones for the guided tours.

▲JoshTriplett 37 days ago
The Rijksmuseum is incredible, but also huge; the kind of museum you pick a small fraction of to see in any given trip. There are also several smaller museums that you can see in a day.

The Mauritshaus is a small museum in a converted manor, containing an incredible number of famous paintings, notably by Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Folks here might also appreciate the M. C. Escher museum.

▲ghaff 38 days ago
Yes. Don't know if I'll make it again on my upcoming trip--missed the Van Gogh last time because it was sold out but have tickets this time. It always amazes me how quickly schedules fill up. Doesn't help that I'm also working.
▲ninalanyon 37 days ago
You need more than one day, more than one visit, for even much smaller art collections.

Trying to take all that in in such a short time is just a recipe for visual, emotional, and intellectual indigestion.

▲derektank 38 days ago
Beautiful building too. The busker playing the accordion in the tunnel was a kind of magical addition to the experience
▲drob518 38 days ago
Definitely. This museum is great if you love Dutch masters, particularly Rembrandt. Highly recommended.
▲ChrisMarshallNY 38 days ago
It’s a cool story.

As a [former] artist, myself, the thing that comes to mind, is the model must have been in real discomfort, after about 3 minutes.

▲Nevermark 38 days ago
Yeah. Even with an "air" book! A couple support canes could help.
▲forinti 38 days ago
I'm currently reading Heretics by the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura. The plot centers around a Rembrandt stolen from a Jewish family that tried to flee to Cuba in the 1930s and a big part of the story follows a young Jewish artist that takes up a kind of apprenticeship with Rembrandt. Padura seems to like stories that span many decades and even centuries as in this book.

Anyway, the book does a good job of describing Rembrandt's life even if the story is mostly fiction.

▲apt-get 38 days ago
... with a high-resolution scan of the work itself available for download, to boot. I really appreciate whenever museums go out of their way to share those publically! Much better than many paintings only officially available as some 400px thumbnail.
▲celaleddin 38 days ago
Yes! I visited Rijksmuseum a few years ago with a close friend and I liked the painting "The Gulf of Naples with the Island of Ischia in the Distance" very much. I downloaded the high quality scan from the painting's museum web page[1] and got it printed onto a canvas to hang in our apartment. We really enjoy its presence with my wife!

[1]: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Gulf-of-...

▲neduma 37 days ago
> got it printed onto a canvas to hang

How, Care to share the steps. I'm thinking of the same thing.

▲microtonal 38 days ago
Obligatory link to the hi-res viewer of the Nachtwacht (Night Watch):

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/operation-night-watch/...

▲dmix 37 days ago
That's a pretty amazing painting, I like how they attached a high quality jpg of it. Rembrandt is my favourite for sure.
▲cubefox 38 days ago
Unrelated, but I have never before seen that "ij" ligature in the title.
▲jvdvegt 37 days ago
IJ is a seperate character (?) in Dutch There are more like this: ei, eu, ui, oe, ch (and I'm probably forgetting some others)
▲cubefox 37 days ago
It's a ligature:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing)

A specialized font glyph but not a special Unicode character.

▲wewewedxfgdf 38 days ago
"What's this painting here behind the couch? Did any of you guys put this here? Hey, wait, what...... this is a Rembrandt!"
▲techpulse_x 38 days ago
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