Who is better: Rembrandt or Raphael?

Question

I like them both but can't decide who to write my art history thesis on!

Answer 1

Great question!

But its a bit like comparing Fiction with Poetry.

Let's start with Rembrandt (fiction).

Rembrandt draws or paints a play on the stage. And just like the very best set designer you could imagine, he creates a mood. Its not just the props he chooses; its the lighting! His stage lighting deserves an academy award.

Then he gives the actors their costumes so we understand their rank, but beyond that, we see sort of past their clothing too. Rembrandt wants us to see their warts, their stupidity and weakness; whatever makes them just people; whatever reveals their "human" condition.

He's a Protestant who's best friends are Jews. He's not looking at people like most of us do. He's very sympathetic about our sinfulness as God's creatures; but that doesn't stop him from showing how sin dirties every one of us.

Rembrandt used Bible stories to reveal the human condition.

Raphael (poetry)is a different bird entirely.

He is telling stories too. But he's choosing stories from the Classics and Mythology and the Bible. All the time choosing because his patron has started the ball rolling with a request. "Show the time when".... (and can you paint me in the scene too)?

Raphael has no interest in the commonfolk at all.
He's painting huge, dramatic paintings of heroes (most of whom are posing like actors).

His drawing shows the latest advances in perspective and anatomy but he's no scientist like Da Vinci. He's not inventing new things, he's just doing new things better than most of the competition.

Raphael is a dandy. He looks good and he'll tell you so. (I guess there was some of this in DaVinci too.)

His paintings are kind of an IDEAL way to picture things. He's definitely not interested in REALISM.
He cleans things up. Even the poor look sort of like heroes with rough clothing on; like they are pretending to be poor.

A REALIST, like Rembrandt, is looking for real common people to draw as the poor.

Raphael would be horrified to have to spend all that time with a stinky commoner!

Both painters say something dramatic and compelling about their Time and the Places they've imagined.

Answer 2

Rembrandt

Answer 3

Hmmm...tough question....for me, it would be Rembrandt. Raphael was part of the Renaissance school of art, so to speak. Rembrandt, being of the 1600's...a bit after the renaissance era, eschewed the bright, vivid colors that had been made popular. He was able to brilliantly meld the earthy and the spiritual to create paintings unparalleled in his era.The darker colors, and the brilliant use of light made his paintings quite spectacular. If it were me...LOL...I'd choose Rembrandt Van Rijn.

Answer 4

Rembrandt! Raphael is so sickly sweet, he can kill a diabetic!

Answer 5

I have always been artistic and I was raised agnostic and later became an atheist. I don't think a belief system makes a person more creative. An artist can be inspired by many things besides religion.

Answer 6

Raphael. School of Athens all the way!