World Culture: "Rembrandt and Amsterdam portraiture, 1590-1670" exhibition opened in Madrid

The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid, Spain) opened the "Rembrandt and Amsterdam portraiture. 1590-1670" exhibition. For the first time in Spain, the museum is presenting an exhibition on Rembrandt’s activities as a portraitist. The exhibition includes major examples by other artists active alongside him in Amsterdam.

The exhibition features ninety-seven portraits, twenty-two of which by Rembrandt’s brush, and the rest are painted by his contemporaries. The exhibits arrived at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid from Amsterdam museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and Washington and London art galleries.

The exhibition is made up of nine chapters. The first chapters showcase the works of the most popular artists of that time - Cornelis Ketel, Cornelis van der Voort, Thomas de Keyser. The other feature Rembrandt's early works along with paintings by his competitors - Bartholomeus van der Helst, Jacob Adriaensz Backer and Frans Hals the Elder. Only the distant halls present famous portraits by Rembrandt.