| Summary: | The identification of Rembrandt as a ���Protestant��� artist has, since the middle of the
nineteenth century, defined and directed analytical perspective of his biblical works.
In the initial stages of Rembrandt���s reinvention as representative of the Protestant
culture of his age, religion was not important in terms of the art produced; it was an
indication of political identity. A recognition of the importance of Rembrandt���s
religious beliefs to his biblical works led later art historians to define these works in
terms of a Protestant identity. Rembrandt was a ���Protestant���; he was ipso facto
Protestant artist. To substantiate this claim, academic research has sought to identify
those particular characteristics which are thought to be Protestant and which can be
readily identified in Rembrandt���s work.
There is a substantial body of work within Rembrandt���s biblical oeuvre which
challenges that paradigm. These are works which show the Virgin Mary, a figure
largely marginalised in Protestant belief. These are generally acknowledged as
���Catholic��� or ���made for a Catholic audience���, but they are analysed either as
eccentricities or as Catholic subjects which Rembrandt has manipulated to allow for a
Protestant understanding. No attempt has been made to place these works within the
Catholic tradition to which they belong.
This thesis hopes to redress the balance by examining a largely un-researched body of
Rembrandt���s Marian work. The first section surveys the notion of ���Protestant��� art and
those writers who claim to recognise such a phenomenon in Rembrandt���s work. It
examines the place of the Virgin Mary in Post-Reformation Protestant ideology and
reviews Rembrandt���s history within a spectrum of religious beliefs. Finally it takes an
overview of the presence of the Virgin Mary in Rembrandt���s oeuvre, seeking possible
inspiration and explanation from the events in his daily life. The second section
analyses six representative works in order to show that these Marian subjects are not
religious works manipulated to a Protestant understanding but are artworks that show,
both overtly and covertly, that Rembrandt was aware of and actively acknowledged
the place of the Virgin Mary, both in the Catholic visual tradition and in the
contemporary Catholic theology of his age.
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