Self-Portrait (?) with Plumed Cap and Lowered Sabre 1634

Curator: This etching, “Self-Portrait (?) with Plumed Cap and Lowered Sabre,” is attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn. It’s currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The immediate impact is this incredible texture, the way the light seems to cling to the fur collar and the plume. It almost feels sculpted. Curator: It’s interesting you say sculpted because the symbols here feel deeply chiseled into our cultural memory of the artist as a master. Look at the plumed cap, the suggestion of military attire. Editor: But consider the etching process itself. The labor involved to create this image, biting the plate with acid, the skill and control demanded… it’s far from spontaneous. Curator: And yet, that’s precisely the illusion Rembrandt creates, suggesting a persona of artistic genius seemingly effortlessly rendering an archetype of the artist-as-soldier. Editor: All that dark ink… almost hides the careful labor. It certainly invites a deeper look, doesn’t it? Curator: It does. It invites us to reflect on image-making itself.