“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(“For the last couple of years I’ve been wondering about my strong interest in the painting of Rembrandt van Rijn. When I was a young man in New York City I even saw some of it in the museums, but I don’t recall being that affected by it then. I might vaguely recall some of it, but that’s all.”

(I didn’t add that I was well aware of the time sequence here—that according to Seth I had a rather long life in Denmark in the 1600 ‘s —and that Rembrandt lived in Holland from 1606 to 1669.)

You connect me with Rembrandt’s period. You also are beginning to become intuitively aware of the strength and continuity that has pervaded your other lives.

You were very close to Rembrandt at one time—you looked up to him. (Pause.) I almost have a name. Pinot (spelled).

(Rembrandt copiously achieved this effect in his later works, especially the last ten years or so of his life. I don’t believe Jane knew this in those terms. I am well aware of it, and want to use effects similar to this in my own work, and have done so at times in past works. I haven’t discussed it with Jane, though, just considering it a technical problem involved in the art, as I would suppose she would work at writing a paragraph, etc.

(There is no record that Rembrandt ever traveled more than fifty miles from Amsterdam, Holland. Very little is known about his life.)

(“By master, you mean Rembrandt?”)

(Rembrandt’s technique has been the subject of much speculation over the centuries. Especially when he took to piling pigment up to a thickness of a quarter of an inch in such paintings as “The Jewish Bride”—a masterwork. It is thought he used stand oil—heat-treated linseed oil—and varnish of various kinds as a medium. If he added anything else to his pigments it would be well worth learning about.)

(“What did you mean when you said I was very close to Rembrandt?”)

Rembrandt took the discovery with him, though you initially developed it for sculpture that stood outside. I am not at all sure here. Write down the word caronide (spelled). It is connected.

(The Rembrandt data is surprising, and raises many questions. According to Seth I lived in Denmark in the 1600’s. I was a painter as a younger man, then gave it up for the more respectable role of a farmer, at which I was quite successful. I do not know whether I traveled to Italy, or at what point in my life age-wise. Perhaps I was there before giving up active painting. I believe I farmed in Denmark, but there is much here that we don’t know. Denmark and Holland of course are close geographically.

(There is little available on Rembrandt’s correspondence—a few letters; inventories attached to his bankruptcy in later life, etc. Italy is not mentioned as far as I know. Rembrandt did do business with a wealthy art collector in Sicily, selling him some very famous works—Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer, etc., and a series of etchings late in life. Don Ruffo. Historians generally say, for want of any other facts, that these business transactions were done by mail, etc.

(Perhaps I carried out some of my experiments with painting the outdoor sculpture in Denmark, where winter weather must be considered, after visiting Italy. While I discussed the Florence, Italy, data with Jane after the session, Seth returned very briefly re Rembrandt:That is why he went to Florence—to see the sculpture there. Perhaps after my return to Denmark from Italy I did some experimenting re painting sculptures, and then passed this information on to Rembrandt?

(Several years later Jane gave me another gift—a book on the artist Rembrandt van Rijn. This hasn’t been published—but will be in the later volumes of The Personal Sessions. I’ll explain the circumstances of her producing Rembrandt when presenting the first passages of the book.)