Delayed Recognition in Paint
Prolepsis and Anagnorisis in Rembrandt’s Denial of St Peter
Keywords:
Rembrandt, History Painting, Aristotle, Drama, Painted StageAbstract
The study attempts to read Rembrandt’s 1660 history painting from a curious aesthetic perspective: as a drama in the Aristotelian sense. To show the moment of anagnorisis in a picture is not enough to place the particular attributes of the events preceding and following the chosen moment, as in most history pieces. Rembrandt subordinates the configuration of the scene, the figures' body language, facial expressions, and spatial arrangement to a preliminary dramaturgical understanding of what is about to happen in and between the characters at the particular moment chosen to be depicted.
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