A friend from home just reminded me about the Rembrandt exhibit I saw at the Detroit Institute of the Arts when I was home for Christmas. My dad took my boyfriend and me there to see it. It’s called “The Faces of Jesus,” and the main point seemed to be that Rembrandt was unique in that he used Jewish models for his depictions of Jesus. He was, it seemed, one of the few of his day to recognize that Jesus was Jewish.
I noticed something else. This is one of the earlier paintings, where Jesus is making eye-contact with something we can’t see–presumably, he is looking up to heaven:
Then his eyes went this way for a few paintings:
Towards the end of the exhibit, in what I think are the later paintings, though this might just be the work of the exhibit designer, Jesus’s focus changed again and he was looking this-a-way:
Innnteresting…
I don’t get it.
Okay. Early in the exhibit Jesus is looking above people’s heads, then he’s looking at the person beside him, or at least something on earth, then he’s looking at “you.” I guess I’m not sure exactly why that fascinated me, except I thought maybe it suggested something about Rembrandt’s understanding and relationship to Jesus.