The Arrest of Christ 1710 - 1727

Curator: Here we have Aert de Gelder's "The Arrest of Christ," painted between 1710 and 1727. The medium, as you can see, is oil paint. Editor: It hits you, doesn't it? The gloom... Like a stage shrouded just before a terrible act. The little dog makes me particularly sad. Curator: The drama is heightened, I think, by de Gelder's intense use of chiaroscuro. The production and reception of paintings at this time, particularly history paintings like this one, often relied on dramatic visual techniques. What is brought to the fore, in a way? Editor: Absolutely. You can almost feel the press of the crowd, the rough texture of their garments. Though everything recedes back into this heavy, enveloping darkness. I wonder what sort of workshop de Gelder was running when he took this on? Did his assistants prepare his canvases? Did they even paint the darker areas for him to just come over and add lights? Curator: That's very likely. It also raises questions of what the commercial networks for obtaining pigments might have looked like in his practice. The striking reds and golds would have required certain material resources, trade relationships, and technical knowledge. He was one of the last pupils of Rembrandt; so we could see his work also, as an extension of Rembrandt's brand in painting workshops, for a kind of customer! Editor: A Rembrandt extended universe! I love the intimacy he coaxes out despite the grand subject matter. Maybe because it almost looks like he dashed it off? It does bring into view the anxiety and spiritual wrestling, that moment of utter betrayal... You can almost hear a dog barking. Curator: Indeed. So the convergence of process and materials really does help unpack both the conditions of artistic labor at the time, but the psychological weight carried through into subsequent ages. Editor: And to just spend time in the dark. Sometimes that's all you need.