Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture, 1590–1670

While museums around the world are shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibition openings will be replaced by a selection of digital initiatives providing virtual access to art and culture.

With their technical bravado and their psychological depth, the portraits of Rembrandt are celebrated worldwide – yet this exhibition focuses on how the master’s transformative contributions to the genre were deeply influenced by his local environment in Amsterdam. While the Thyssen-Bornemisza is closed, it has launched a virtual tour of the exhibition with 360-degree imaging allowing you to stroll (or scroll) around at your own pace through each of the nine sections, which look at the debts that Rembrandt owed to older painters such as Jan Tengnagel, and his relation to contemporaries such as Dirck Santvoort. There is also a guided video tour with curator Norbert E. Middelkoop; both can be accessed from the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Portrait of a Young Gentleman (1633–34), Rembrandt. Photo: René Gerritsen

View of room one, ‘Diverging Paths’, of the virtual Rembrandt exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

View of room four, ‘Rembrandt’s Competitors’, of the virtual Rembrandt exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

View of room four, ‘Rembrandt’s Competitors’, of the virtual Rembrandt exhibition at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid