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

stories really tell us about a person, questions which Korda’s film will take up as
well.
Saskia and The Painter in his Studio
A further example of Zuckmayers’ deliberate use of discrepancies
between the ekphrasis and the painting occurs few scenes later, after
“Rembrandt’s” wife Saskia’s death, when “Rembrandt” is working on a last
portrait of her. The attributive ekphrasis in this screenplay represents a deliberate
anachronism in which the description matches a picture that historically precedes
the events of the movie scene in which it appears. The scene is described as
showing “Rembrandt” in front of his painting of Saskia: “Das Bild stellt Saskia
von Uilenburgh dar – blühend – in reichem Gewand” (26). 196 The picture that best
fits this brief attributive ekphrasis is the 1634 portrait of Saskia in exotic gown; a
painting executed several years before her death. The painting is apparently
supposed to be shown to the viewer, and since Saskia herself has never been part
of any scene and has thus not been shown or described, this painting actually is
her for the implied viewer. Thus, the screenplay never represents Saskia as an
individual but exclusively as painting, and moreover, as Zuckmayer’s
reconstruction of her in an anachronistic ekphrasis. By choosing a much earlier
painting, Zuckmayer also emphasizes “Rembrandt’s” idealization of her, and his
lack of a sense of reality, thus using this ekphrasis as another means of
constructing a particular image of “Rembrandt” for the viewer.
196 “The picture shows Saskia von Uilenburgh – luxuriant – in rich garments.”
180