Academic-Capital

The subject of the painting was taken from the Apocryphal Book of Tobit. Tobit was a wealthy and strict adherent to Mosaic Law. He lost all of his money and was blinded by an accident. The wife went to work sewing and washing to support the family. She brought home a kid goat and Tobit accused her of stealing it. She chastised him for his self-righteousness and frees him from his limited thinking. Later their fortunes are restored by the efforts of their son and his eyes fixed from blindness from fish entrails. The painting helps us think about how even from the lowest depths man’s lot can change. It is difficult for us to judge others with any real sense of accuracy. To do so requires the ability to weigh and balance all of the possible reasons and justifications. Unfortunately, many of us make the fatal mistake of using self-righteousness to make ourselves look better than and more moral than others. In this case, freeing himself from his narrow thinking also freed him to i

The Night Watch (1642) is one of the most famous paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn. The name is actually incorrect as the painting was inappropriately covered in dark varnish and appears to depict a night scene. However, the varnish was removed in the 1940's giving the total work a brighter image of day time. The painting was originally entitled Patrouille de Nuit by the French and "Night Watch" by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The intent of the painting was to move the subjects into the bright light of the day. Rembrandt was born in Leyden to a miller and the daughter of a baker. His father owned a windmill and people came to use the saying that Rembrandt was "born in a windmill". He was brought into a family of five siblings. His father decided that he should study to be a lawyer but instead he turned to art. He received his earliest training from a relative by the name of Jacob van Swanenburch before moving onto more skilled masters. He finally moved to Amsterdam a