340 



RELIGION REMBRANDT. 



and those general notions which lie at the basis of 

 each religion. (See Benjamin Constant's work on 

 religion.) The different views entertained of re- 

 velation lead, of course, to different views of reli- 

 gion. Those who are convinced that man could 

 nut have obtained a sufficient knowledge of his re- 

 lation to God by the faculties within him, but that 

 a direct interposition of the Deity was necessary, 

 oppose revelation to natural religion, by which is 

 understood that knowledge of our relations to God 

 wliirh we may obtuin by our own faculties, unaided 

 by the special interference of the Deity. Some 

 theologians, however, particularly in Germany, do 

 not confine revelation to a direct interference of the 

 Dt-ity on a particular occasion, but give this name 

 to all communion, of the highest kind, of man with 

 God ; so that they, in fact, blend natural and re- 

 vealed religion, and do not admit any tiling as re- 

 velation which does not satisfy their reason. These 

 are called naturalists, or rationalists. Their oppo- 

 nents are called super naturalists, (q. v.) The ra- 

 tionalists must not be confounded with deists. 



RELIGION, ESTABLISHED, or RELIGION OF THE 

 STATE, is that form of religion to which certain 

 privileges are attached ; for instance, certain politi- 

 cal rights to its professors, or certain distinctions to 

 its priests or ministers. The revolution of July, 

 1830, changed the clause in the French charter, 

 which declared the Catholic religion the religion of 

 the state, to a declaration that it was the religion 

 of the majority. See Religious Liberty, Non-Con- 

 formists, and England, Church of. 



RELIGIOUS, as a substantive, is used for the 

 members of religious orders, monks and nuns. 

 See Orders. 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, or LIBERTY OF CON- 

 SCIENCE, is the freedom of a man to worship his God 

 as he pleases, if he does not thereby disturb the 

 peace of the commonwealth. It exists in perfec- 

 tion where the adherents of every religion can wor- 

 ship publicly, conduct schools and seminaries, make 

 their own liturgy, and, in fact, conduct all their re- 

 ligious concerns according to their own pleasure, 

 without being in any way subjected to the ministers 

 or churches of another faith; where the professors 

 of all religions enjoy equal rights; where, in fact, 

 government takes no cognizance of religious con- 

 cerns, provided the public peace is not injured nor 

 the rules of morality violated. To this day no 

 Christian sect is tolerated in Portugal, Spain, 

 Naples, Sardinia, the States of the Church, and the 

 minor governments of Italy, but the Roman Catho- 

 lic, though Jews and their worship are tolerated. 



RELIGIOUS PEACE. See Peace, Religious. 



REMAINDER, in law, is an estate limited in 

 lands, tenements, or rents, to be enjoyed after the 

 expiration of another particular estate. 



REMAINS, ORGANIC. See Organic Remains 

 and Geology. 



REMBRANDT VAN RHYN, PAUL, one of the 

 most celebrated painters and engravers of the Dutch 

 school, was born in 1606, in a mill near Leyden, 

 which belonged to his father. His passionate love 

 for art disappointed his father's desire of educating 

 him as a scholar. Paul received instructions from 

 James van Zwanenburg, a painter of little note, 

 and afterwards studied in Amsterdam under Last- 

 niann, Pinas, and Schooten. But he soon returned 

 home, and pursued his labours there, taking nature 

 as his sole guide : the nature which he consulted 

 was, however, low ; his situation was by no means 

 adapted to lead him to a conception of the truly 

 beautiful, sublime, and ideal ; and as he made no 

 effort to correct the defects of his early education, 

 it was natural that he should confine himself to de- 



lineations of common life, and find pleasure in 

 them nlone. Throughout his whole life, he re- 

 tained both this view of art and the same mode of 

 living, associating only with common people, and 

 never acquiring a taste for better society. About 

 1630, Rembrandt removed to Amsterdam, and 

 married a handsome peasant girl, whom we find 

 often copied by him. His paintings were soon in 

 extraordinary demand ; and his avarice induced 

 him to abandon his former careful and finished 

 execution for a hasty manner. He also took a 

 great number of pupils, of whom he received a 

 high price for his instructions, selling their works, 

 retouched by himself, for his own. His avaricious 

 shifts have given rise to several erroneous state- 

 ments respecting his life ; thus, for example, he 

 dated several of his etchings at Venice, to make 

 them more saleable; and this circumstance led some 

 of his biographers to believe that he was actually 

 in Venice in 1635 and 1636. But he never left. 

 Amsterdam again, though he was constantly threat- 

 ening to quit Holland, in order to increase the 

 demand for his works. As early as 1628, he had 

 applied himself zealously to etching, and soon 

 acquired great perfection in the art : his etchings 

 were esteemed as highly as his paintings, and lie 

 had recourse to several artifices to raise their price, 

 which are still employed by celebrated engravers. 

 For example, he sold impressions from unfinished 

 plates, then finished them, and, after having used 

 them, made some slight changes, and thus sold the 

 same works three or four times. He would secretly 

 buy up, at auction sales or otherwise, his own 

 works, and then cause them to be secretly offered 

 for sale by his son, as if they had been stolen from 

 his father, &c. By these tricks, and by his parsi- 

 monious manner of living, Rembrandt amassed a 

 considerable fortune. 



Rembrandt was master of all that relates to 

 colouring, distribution of light and shade, and the 

 management of the pencil ; but he has no claims 

 to the other requisites of a true artist composition, 

 grouping, dignified expression, design, perspective, 

 drapery and taste. He drew, indeed, from naked 

 models, for which he used his scholars ; but what 

 sort of models they made, is easily perceived from 

 his works. In his composition and grouping, he 

 followed common nature alone, and his humour at 

 the moment ; in designing he followed his model. 

 He generally concealed the naked parts as much as 

 possible, rarely allowing the hands or feet to be 

 seen, because he was unable to execute them cor- 

 rectly, almost always making them too large or too 

 small. In those works where he could not avoid 

 naked figures (for instance, in the Descent from 

 the Cross, the Burial, and in some representations 

 of Bathsheba in the Bath), he is entirely destitute 

 of proportion, generally disagreeable, at least com- 

 mon. His drapery is fantastical, entirely without 

 judgment, for the most part without taste, and even 

 ridiculous. He purchased a collection of all sorts of 

 foreign dresses, arms, and utensils, which he intro- 

 duced into his pictures. Notwithstanding his great 

 readiness of touch, his designs, even in portraits, 

 and his drapery, are said to have cost him infinite 

 pains. It cannot be denied that his works pos- 

 sess expression and character ; but they have no 

 dignity. His heads are expressive, but, for the 

 most part, caricatured ; his Marys are common 

 women, his Christ, a man of the lowest class of 

 people, &c. On the other hand, his pencil is mas- 

 terly and unique, possessing an energy and effect 

 belonging to no other artist ; and in this consists 

 his peculiar talent. His colouring is magical. 

 Each tint he applied in its proper place, with the 



