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The Ten Greatest Portraits Ever Painted

Ten immortal masterpieces that tower over all the rest.




8. Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669
The Syndics of the Cloth-Makers Guild

     This powerful masterpiece grows on you the longer you study it. Six men are responding to a spoken word by the unseen object of their attention. Something has just been said that draws varying responses, vividly etched on the six faces—skepticism, distrust, bemusement. The group's chairman (gesturing) is readying his next question.

     Rembrandt sets the standard here for the group portrait. All six heads are modeled by the light of a window high up on our left, exemplifying in each case the famous style of light and shade recognized universally and bearing the artist's name—Rembrandt lighting. Each portrayal is vivid and gripping in individual intensity. The combined effect is electric and riveting. Whatever small matter is being discussed by these Dutch merchants in a seventeenth century moment is supercharged by the artist into an immortal instant of importance which arrests us today.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
painting 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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