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

has not adopted it in his film. The film begins with a very different self portrait:
the very first screen shows “Rembrandt” leaning over a Dutch door, reminiscent
of his position in the Self Portrait at the Age of 34. However, the mise-en-scène
makes significant changes to this painting. In the film, “Rembrandt” wears much
more simple everyday clothes, has no hat, and is smoking a long pipe. Through
these changes and through the context of this shot in the film sequence, the film
reinterprets the picture, deleting its references to past artists and focusing instead
on “Rembrandt’s” social role.
After impatiently knocking on the door, “Rembrandt” enters the shop
calling out loudly. During this first scene in the shop, not only does “Rembrandt”
squander his money on exaggerated amounts of flowers and an overpriced
necklace for his wife, which are offered to him by passing salesmen, but
moreover, he is presented as blind to reality, self absorbed and so infatuated with
his wife that he is oblivious to the gravity of her illness to which the doctor tries
in vain to alert him. Moreover, he arrogantly refuses to accept the commission to
paint the officers of the civic guard (his famous Night Watch) because he
“[doesn’t] like their faces” and prefers to paint Saskia, until his agent Jan Six
makes it clear that he will have to paint them in order to pay for the high price of
the necklace he just purchased for her. The Self Portrait at the Age of 34 is thus
connected to the image of “Rembrandt” as a man of high social rank, as arrogant
bourgeois, as indeed Rembrandt has represented himself in other self portraits
(e.g. Self Portrait with Wide-Brimmed Hat [1632]; Self Portrait with Hat, Hand
on Hip [1631-2]). The movie thus amalgamates various other self portraits in this
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