Rembrandt was Scared

There are different interpretations about this (like anything), but in most of the art history classes that I took in college the professors always raved about Rembrandt's self-portraits.

Many artists paint self-portraits, but Rembrandt really took the torch and ran with it. He produced self-portraits throughout his entire life. My professors believed that his careful and meticulous representations of himself, capturing every wrinkle and blemish, were a testament to Rembrandt's attitude about death. His ability to portray himself even in the darkest stages of life shows that he wasn't afraid of old age and death and that he embraced it.

But, who among us hasn't had a grand old time with the digital camera taking ridiculous pictures of ourselves: melodramatic and myspace worthy close-ups, shots with hair-in-the-face and earnest eyes, the pouty lips, or looking away from the camera?

I know I have.

Does our unencumbered picture snapping mean that we, like Rembrandt, balk in the face of old age? I don't think so. And I'm not so sure that that was really what he was going for either.

Rembrandt didn't have a digital camera, but he was interested in his image. What does what we look like say about ourselves? How do we go from being tiny, crawling babies to robust young adults to wrinkled, malcontent senior citizens? It's interesting to watch where we came from and where we go. Maybe it's not that we're not afraid of getting older; I think it could be the opposite.

Maybe a painting or digital photo is the only way to make ourselves slow down and stop moving. If we could just hold that pose a little longer or pin it up on our wall, then maybe we'd always stay that way. Maybe Rembrandt was trying to halt the aging process like we all wish we could.