Rembrandt: arms and armor in his work

[Jim McDougall]

A couple of times over the past couple of years, there have been some references to the weaponry and items of armor that are seen in the works of Rembrandt. While not claiming any particular knowledge of art, I have always found the symbolism and possible interpretations imbued in the works of many artists fascinating. The premise for "The DaVinci Code" was in my opinion, brilliant, as it is well known that artists indeed in many cases used thier work as a vehicle for secretive devices as well as the obvious intended interpretations of thier subjects.

One of the key topics regarding Rembrandts paintings and historical accuracy has been of course the use of the keris and other exotic weapons in several of his works, The use of these unusual contexted weapons in Biblical themes has been the subject understandably of some speculations. In my opinion, Rembrandt was innovative and in degree somewhat rebellious in his work, probably due to the brisk competition among painters who were working often in the same themes. It seems that in the typical cases, painters often used older but European clothing and as required, arms, in the Biblical themed subjects. I believe that Rembrandt, who appears to have acquired a number of these exotic weapons from the regularly arriving imports with ships from the East Indies, may well have decided to use these to instill a unique texture in his version of these themes.

Among the mysteries of Rembrandt himself, has become the cases of paintings long attributed to him, now being declared 'of his school' or by one of his students rather than the master himself. One such painting is "The Man in the Golden Helmet". This venerable work has stood mysteriously through the centuries deeply influencing the imaginations of countless generations, and a certain reverence for this image of the steadfast old warrior, resplendant in his finely embellished, though older armor.

In wondering what kind of helmet or armor this was, I discovered that this was actually what appears to be in style, a 'pear stalk' type cabasset. In the only descriptions I ever have seen, the armor is described loosely as 'European light armor'. The cabasset itself was the rank and file type helmet of infantry and pikemen of the 16th century into the 17th. It would seem that the helmet in the painting has been suitably embellished with gilt high relief images, as well as what appears to be ear flaps (as seen on contemporary cavalry lobster tail helmets) and a plume. These modifications seem good examples of artistic license added to an ordinary helmet, though such decoration in armor did of course exist in many cases for those of means.

Although it is now generally held by art scholars that the painting is not Rembrandts, but of his school, I did find that among the arms in his collection there was indeed at least one cabasset. His students are believed to have been asked to render thier impressions of his work, which leads to wondering if perhaps he had either created a 'dead color' prototype of this, or had a more detailed work in progress. If indeed this was by one of his students, it would seem that he astutely picked up on Rembrandt's keen awareness and admiration of wealth and means, as well as his admiration of military standing (as seen in his self portrait with gorget).