SASKIA  UYLENBURGH - AMARILLI - GIULIO CACCINI 1550-1618

PAULA BAR-GIESE  - SOPRANO & VIRGINAL

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 RIJKSSTUDIO - Interior SAEL with Saskia in Bed

LACHRIMAE [FLOW MY TEARS]

(Stort trané uyt, schreyt luyde weét en treurt!)

[Stort tranen uit schreit luid weent en treurt /

Och het dunkt mij dat mijn hart barst en scheurt]

She wouldn’t live to see the age of thirty, the little girl that was baptised on August 2, 1612 as the eighth child in Rombertus van Uylenburgh’s and Sjoukje Ozinga’s family. How happy the parents were with their last child! But their happiness wouldn’t last long, for death struck quickly. Mother passed away when little Saskia was seven.

Her father was mayor of Leeuwarden and William the Silent’s legal adviser, who, in 1584, after a shared working dinner with the Father of the Nation, had witnessed death do its pestiferous work at the hands of Balthasar Gerards.

He left Saskia orphaned at the age of twelve. How confusing it all was for the still young child who, in her eldest sister’s family, would develop into a wilful woman with a warm heart...No wonder the young and passionate Rembrandt van Rijn fell madly in love with the cheerful and enticing woman whom he would make his beloved wife in 1634. Having been confronted with a lot of sadness in her childhood, a great happiness befell Saskia with the love of the painter who was already starting to build a name for himself, for enchanted he was and enchanted by her he would always remain, also after her death. Time and again he proudly captured her on canvas and on paper, for she was not only his beautiful, innermost beloved wife but also his muse.

It seemed as if happiness wasn’t meant to be for them, three times the wedded couple had to bury a child, three times they were on the brink of despair. When finally in 1641 their son Titus was born and survived, the tide seemed to turn, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

In 1642 fate struck again, again death came knocking on the van Rijn couple’s door and this time the young mother was the victim, presumably felled by tuberculosis, leaving behind a disillusioned and inconsolable Rembrandt. In his work, she lives on, and in the presentations and films by three driven contemporary musicians, Saskia is even represented in the flesh, gifted and passionate like she, who came into the world four hundred years ago, was in reality.

MA Natascha Bär, art historian

Kinderen uit het huwelijk VAN RIJN/VAN UYLENBURGH
[1] ROMBARTUS VAN RIJN
Gedoopt 15 december 1634 Leiden ZH
Begraven 15 februari 1636 Leiden ZH
[2] CORNELIJA VAN RIJN
Gedoopt 22 juli 1638 Amsterdam NH
Begraven 13 augustus 1638 Amsterdam NH
[3] CORNELIJA VAN RIJN
Gedoopt 29 juli 1640 Amsterdam NH
Begraven 12 augustus 1640 Amsterdam NH
[4] TITUS VAN RIJN
Gedoopt 22 september 1641 Amsterdam NH

RIJKSSTUDIO - SASKIA UYLENBURGH - ENLARGE WITH MUSIC - OPTIMIZED FOR IPAD - CLICK ON THE PAINTING TO ENLARGE

MUSICK’S MONUMENT AUDIO RECORDINGS