extreme culture

A Door into Delight

By PAM HARBAUGH

I love how the internet can add to our humanity. Sure, it can madden us with widely circulated stories of atrocious behavior. But there is that other side. It can become like an art magazine, highly adapted for your own personal viewing.

This is where it took me this morning. I went to The New York Times and saw this image:

It immediately brought to mind the wonderful composition in paintings of Dutch Masters, especially Rembrandt. Look at the great composition in his famous 1632 painting called “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.”

That tight focus in this painting is extraordinary. While a few break away, they are still connected to the mass. This painting, and the image from the NY Times tell a story thanks to the tight composition. A thought sidebar popped up: a stage director’s goal of “picturization,” where visual composition again helps tell the story.

Joseph Morales and Company in HAMILTON National Tour. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Which reminded me that I had to get to enter the “Hamilton” $10 ticket lottery today. But I returned to Rembrandt.

So I clicked some more and was blown over by this detail of a Rembrandt painting:

Isn’t that…just…I am at a loss for words. It prompts tears actually. The humanity and the artistry lift my soul.

By the way, that detail comes from this self-portrait:

All that thrill just from looking at an image on The New York Times home page today. And by the way, here’s a link to the breezy story that accompanies that video.