Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

The interpretation of Rembrandt painting the God of Death is based on the
dating of the painting to 1669, the year of his death, but is invalidated with the re-
dating to 1662. Likewise, the identification of Rembrandt with Democritus
painting Heraclitus does not take into account his role as painter but only his
laughing expression. 192 By contrast, Blankert’s detailed analysis of Rembrandt as
Zeuxis explains convincingly how this self portrait fits into a tradition of literary
references to Zeuxis and into Rembrandt’s concept of himself as artist and his art.
Moreover, the earliest mention of the painting, in 1761 when the painting was
probably still in its original state, identifies it as “Rembrandt painting an old
woman […] by himself” (qtd. in Blankert 34). Although Democritus is the “best
known laughing figure in Dutch seventeenth-century iconography,” there is one
literary reference that depicts the painter, Zeuxis laughing while painting an old
woman: De verborum significatione, a dictionary assembled in Augustus’ time by
Marcus Verrius Flaccus (ibid. 35). More significantly, Karel van Mander’s
Schilder-Boeck, a handbook for Dutch artists, narrates a relevant anecdote:
“Zeuxis is said to have departed from his life while laughing immoderately,
choking while painting a funny, wrinkled old woman in the flesh” (ibid.). And
according to Blankert, this was not an isolated reference, but recurred in other
sources as well. Moreover, Rembrandt’s pupil Arent de Gelder painted the same
subject in 1685, and critics have noted many similarities between the two works
(ibid 34; Rembrandt 216-29).
192 The Greek philosopher Democritus (460-371BCE) was already in Antiquity called the
“laughing philosopher” because of his teachings. He held that the highest goal is happiness, which
consists in serenity of the soul and is best achieved through moderation and a balanced and
harmonious life. Cf. “Demokritos,” Philosophisches Wörterbuch, ed. Georgi Schischkoff
(Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, , 1991) 124.
168