The Private World of Rembrandt tells the personal story of the greatest painter in Dutch history. Rembrandt van Rijn lived in Amsterdam for a significant time producing a large number of works of art and left intriguing traces around the city in the process. Amsterdam City Archives possesses the largest collection of Rembrandt documents, relating to his work, his clients, his wives and lovers, children, and his financial troubles. The exhibition is based on original seventeenth-century documents, and sheds light on an array of stories, some previously unknown.
Let the ‘Rembrandtviewer’ guide you through the exhibition and use it to scan the archives’ original documents. With the aid of Augmented Reality (AR), the archival sources will be made accessible, enriched with sound and image, and illustrated digitally with artworks from all over the world. Besides archival documents, original work by Rembrandt will also be on show: etchings and drawings, some from Amsterdam City Archives’ own collection and some on loan from institutions including the Rijksmuseum and the Rembrandt House Museum.
CLIENT
AMSTERDAM CITY ARCHIVE
Term: 2018/12/07 – 2019/04/07
Year: 2018/2019
Location: Amsterdam City Archives
Photography: Mike Bink, Bas Uterwijk, Synergique
Atmospheric exhibition hall
Discover Rembrandt’s life in Amsterdam from dozens of historical documents, displayed in chronological order in the City Archives. The years of Rembrandt’s life that are highlighted in the exhibition have each been paired with a theme, all themes together form an open exhibition. Each theme has its own backdrop, made out of a printed canvas. When walking through the exhibition, the canvasses create a layered view. The exhibition’s atmosphere and lighting were inspired by Rembrandt’s frequent use of chiaroscuro.
Documents from Rembrandt's life
The Amsterdam City Archives curate a large collection of sources from Rembrandt’s life. Rembrandt lived in Amsterdam during most of his painting carrier, which is visible in the city archives. Ranging from his notice of marriage to his first wife Saskia, to documents about his burial: dozens of original documents are on display and form the core of The Private World of Rembrandt.
Rembrandtviewer
Synergique developed the Rembrandtviewer especially for bringing the archives’ documents to life. The Rembrandtviewer consists of an iPad in a custom wooden case which has sockets for two headphones. It runs an application which is able to scan every document in the exhibition and supplement it with stories, texts and animations in augmented reality.
Note: Currently showing a temporary casefilm to give a sense of the augmented reality experience. We’re currently working on the final film, which will be shown here from March 2019.
Access to the stories
The Private World of Rembrandt revolves around documents elegantly handwritten in Old-Dutch. They are hard to decrypt for the modern day reader. Every document is therefore complemented with a contemporary textual interpretation. Many of the documents also have an added audio clip or a digital layer in AR, in which the story corresponding to that specific document is told. The documents are thus made accessible to everyone.
Layered materials
The City Archives’ documents are enriched with an extra layer of animations, stories and texts using augmented reality. The layering of the AR experience is reinforced by the choice of materials for the exhibition. The different topics of the exhibition each have their own background canvas in a wooden frame. The canvasses are made of semi-transparent cloths and have been printed with texts and images of Rembrandts work. Every wooden frame contains multiple cloths, creating a layered effect.
