A display of gentle emotion, intimacy and humanism. The background is almost blank showing only a few shapes of architecture, and some trees and leaves. The source of light is unclear. Light could come from above or from the viewer’s direction; but, it doesn’t matter, because the faces of the couple seem to glow by themselves, which was apparently the artist’s way of intensifying the mood. The softness of the light marks the feelings as being appropriately gentle, tender and sweet.
The gestures reaffirm what the facial features express, and particularly charming is the fact that the groom and the bride don’t look directly into each other’s eyes; their gazes, the girl’s blush and the spontaneous awkward movements reveal shyness, embarrassment from the moment — which the young man tries to dispel in a somewhat clumsy, though loving embrace. These newlywed man and woman look inside themselves, as if wishing to savor the moment and imprint it into their memories.
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The composition is fairly classical in its pyramid shape. The hands of the actors constitute the most physically animated part of the scene and evince complex symmetry; it seems as though these body parts play an ornamental compositional role, decorating the otherwise simplified scene. The garments, though rich and festive, cannot vie with the richness of the facial expressions, and, in fact seem to sit uncomfortably on the wearers. What sets this piece apart from the renaissance artwork I discussed earlier is the encompassing naturalism and realism of the subjects.
A stylistic break makes itself clearly visible, with notable tendencies towards more realistic play of light and darkness, less rigid composition and a shift towards intimacy and individualization, as opposed to grand spiritual generalization of the Renaissance. Though all of these changes can be attributed only to Rembrandt, most of them reappear in contemporary artwork, conjoined as the main components of European Baroque painting.
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