Aristotle with a Bust of Homer

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer: Rembrandt

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Rembrandt Oil Painting - Aristotle with a Bust of Homer

Work Overview: Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer (Aristotle with a Bust of Homer)
Artist Rembrandt Edit this on Wikidata
Year 1653
Medium Oil on canvas
Movement Dutch Golden Age
Dimensions 143.5 cm (56.5 in) × 136.5 cm (53.7 in)
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, also known as Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Rembrandt.

It was painted in 1653, as a commission from Don Antonio Ruffo, from Messina in Sicily, who did not request a particular subject.

Aristotle, world-weary, looks at the bust of blind, humble Homer, on which he rests one of his hands. This has variously been interpreted as the man of sound, methodical science deferring to Art, or as the wealthy and famous philosopher, wearing the jeweled belt given to him by Alexander the Great, envying the life of the poor blind bard.[1] It has also been suggested that this is Rembrandt's commentary on the power of portraiture.[1]

The interpretation of methodical science deferring to art is discussed at length in Rembrandt's Aristotle and Other Rembrandt Studies.[1] The author notes that Aristotle's right hand (traditionally the favored hand), which rests on the bust of Homer, is both higher and painted in lighter shades than the left hand on the gold chain given to him by Alexander.

The exact subject being portrayed in this portrait has been challenged in the book by Simon Schama titled Rembrandt's Eyes, applying the scholarship of Paul Crenshaw.[2] Schama presents a substantial argument that it was the famous ancient Greek painter Apelles who is depicted in contemplation by Rembrandt and not Aristotle.[3]

It was purchased in 1961 for $2.3 million by the Metropolitan Museum of Art[4] in New York City, USA. At the time this was the highest amount ever paid for any picture at public or private sale.[5] During the renovation of the Rembrandt wing of the Metropolitan Museum, the painting was retitled in November 2013 as Aristotle with a Bust of Homer.

The painting forms the central theme of Joseph Heller's 1988 novel Picture This.

This imaginary portrait, one of Rembrandt's best-known works, was painted for Don Antonio Ruffo, a wealthy Sicilian nobleman and Rembrandt's only foreign patron, who had asked Rembrandt for a portrait of a philosopher. The artist sent the painting to Messina (Sicily) in 1654. He was paid 500 Dutch florine (gulden) for it.

Rather than choose a single figure, the enormously inventive artist found a way to present three of the great men of antiquity: Aristotle, Homer, and Alexander the Great. Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C., is shown in his library dressed in the robes of a Renaissance humanist. He rests his hand on a bust of Homer and wears a splendid chain bearing a medallion of Alexander the Great, who had at one time been Aristotle's pupil. The figure of Homer was certainly based on one of several Hellenistic busts owned by Rembrandt; the figure of Aristotle is reminiscent of Rembrandt's portraits of the Jews of the Amsterdam ghetto, whom he had often used as models in his biblical paintings. The solemn stillness of Aristotle's study, the eloquence of his fingers resting on the bust of the blind poet, and above all the brooding mystery in his face unite to communicate an image of deep thought.

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) rests his hand reflectively on a bust of Homer, the blind epic poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey. A medallion representing Alexander the Great, whom Aristotle tutored, hangs from the heavy gold chain. The philosopher contemplates material rewards as opposed to spiritual values, with the play of light and shadow on his features suggesting the motions of his mind. Painted for the great Sicilian collector Antonio Ruffo, the picture also refers to Aristotle's comparison of touch and sight as a means of acquiring knowledge.

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