Textured paint invites touch. While that observation may generate little controversy, art historical orthodoxy has long held that paintings should be interpreted exclusively in terms of opticality. For the most part, that makes perfect sense. But as Svetlana Alpers argued, in Rembrandt's late paintings textured paint can act in concert with touching, both real and represented. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, I will demonstrate that Rembrandt used textured paint in a highly selective way: he textured the paint in areas where meaning emerged in connection with that texture. Second, I will argue that Rembrandt deployed textured paint in order to suggest different kinds of touching.

Touch, from the Erotic to the Familial

Like the Portrait of Jan Six (Fig. 52), Bathsheba (Fig. 53) and Woman Bathing (Plate 6) speak to Rembrandt's consummate skill in applying paint. They also add another dimension to the theme of touch: the erotic touch of the assumed male viewer. In the Bathsheba, this touching is inherent in the story and evoked by the emphasis on depicted touching, and by the differentiated paint surfaces. There is no certainty with regards to the story, if any, of the Woman Bathing, but bathing is an inherently erotic theme in the European tradition, and once again the act of touching is represented, and called attention to through the varied textures of the paint surface.