Rembrandt’s “Three Crosses”

Views on Dutch Painting of the Golden Age, Rembrandt’s “Three Crosses”
Nicola Suthor, Hon. 2014, Professor of the History of Art, focuses on Rembrandt van Rijn’s heavy revision of his engraving the Three Crosses (1653). Whereas his motivation for reworking the plate may have been to strengthen its worn-out passages in order to produce more sheets, the fourth state is, surprisingly enough, a significantly different image. The importance of the Three Crosses lies in Rembrandt’s experimental development of form. Suthor suggests an approach to understanding the reworking of the plates by considering the artist’s sketching technique, marked by a use of erasure aimed at opening up the forms. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Fund.