"Passie, Hartstocht": Painting and Evoking Emotions in Rembrandt’s Studio

Focusing on Rembrandt’s studio, this chapter explores the theory and practice in the depiction of the passions. It argues that the central importance alotted to portraying and evoking emotions in rhetorical theory inspired painterly experiments in the 1630s and theoretical ideals that were first written down by Franciscus Junius (1638) and elaborated by Samuel van Hoogstraten (1678). Allegedly, an image’s power to transport the viewer into a virtual reality was greatly enhanced by its emotional appeal. This view inspired the ideal of the artist as „pathopoios", capable of experiencing the passions without letting them disturb his own state of mind.