Abstract

Rembrandt's Syndics of the Drapers' Guild of 1662 is widely recognized as the crowning achievement of his career. Yet scholars cannot agree on what the five "sample-masters" positioned around a table
are doing, or who they are looking at, if anyone. I propose that Rembrandt portrayed the sample-masters looking up from his studies of them in their account book and out at him. His brilliant solution for
a specific artistic problem was based on the concrete circumstances of his process of composition and selfconsciously reflects on portraiture as a process in space and time. Rembrandt reveals himself as
"hidden master" or invisible viewer, engaging his sitters in a dialectical relation, which we vicariously experience in turn.

Log in using your username and password

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.

If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.