Only a handful of European artists have reputations so towering that their names have become household words: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Picasso.

One of those names is Rembrandt, and as part of its mission to bring historically important art to the Roanoke Valley, the Taubman Museum of Art will open an exhibit Friday of 35 etchings by the 17th-century Dutch art master.

The museum is launching four new exhibitions this week as part of its first anniversary celebration, with "Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings from the John Villarino Collection" as the main attraction.

The master printmaker

As a painter, Rembrandt invested his portraits with unsparing realism and soulful personality and pioneered the chiaroscuro technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark to create depth and focus. His name has become nearly synonymous with painting.

Yet in his own time, Rembrandt was most famous for his etchings. The difficult medium required hand-carving the reverse of an intended image directly onto a plate covered in resin, which was then used to create prints.

Rembrandt rose to the challenge and became such a master of the form that he invested his images with the subtlety of paintings, even inventing his own tools to create desired effects.

"What he did in 40 years of printmaking was just outstanding," said David Brown, director of art at the Taubman. The Dutch master's prints are free with their lines, yet expressive and full of exquisite detail. "I think that's what makes him king -- king of the etching," Brown said.

To use modern vernacular, Rembrandt was a painter who thought outside the box in his approach to techniques and subjects, and his portrayals of beggars in society were just one example.

In the time of Rembrandt's youth, it was common for artists to portray street people as grotesque and loathsome, or as Brown puts it, "monsters of society." Yet Rembrandt infuses his portraits with empathy and even dignity.

He also puts biblical figures in his work in similar clothes and poses, combining what was then considered high and low art -- religious subjects blended with depictions of the sordid and supposedly unworthy. This combination -- cutting edge for his era -- inspired the exhibit's title.

In one surprising instance, Rembrandt even created an etching of himself in beggar's rags.

As is typical of the time, Rembrandt's prints are tiny, often little more than 4 inches tall, making their level of detail that much more remarkable.

Brown noted the image of Rembrandt as a beggar was an inadvertent foreshadowing of the artist's later life, when he would have to sell off most of his collections and his printmaking machine to avoid bankruptcy. Rembrandt, who died in 1669 at age 63, was a wealthy man much of his life, but indulged in a lifestyle beyond his means, and lived long enough to see his work fall out of fashion.

Companion exhibits

To add context to the display, the Taubman has also borrowed two large-scale paintings from the North Carolina Museum of Art, where the "Sordid & Sacred" exhibit originated.

These paintings, by Flemish artist David Tenier the Younger and Dutch artist Isack van Ostade, depict the rowdy street life of the time and demonstrate Rembrandt's influence on his successors, Brown said.

On Thursday, Dennis Weller, the curator of Northern European Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, will give a talk about the Rembrandt etchings.

The Taubman is further expanding the Rembrandt exhibit by presenting a companion exhibit in an adjoining gallery. "Jumpstart and Holler: Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra" features a collaboration between two modern-day printmakers.

Houston, of North Carolina, and Mazorra, a West Virginia native, have assembled a series of prints featuring modern-day beggars to be assembled in a "tent city" specifically to go with the Taubman's showing of the Rembrandt etchings.

Houston and Mazorra have also created a print of the two of them boxing with Rembrandt that will go on sale at the museum store the day the exhibits open. All proceeds from sales of the print will benefit the Roanoke Rescue Mission, Brown said.

“SORDID AND SACRED: THE BEGGARS IN REMBRANDT’S ETCHINGS FROM THE JOHN VILLARINO COLLECTION ”
When: Friday through Feb.  7
Where: Taubman Museum of Art
Admission: $10.50 adul ts
Info: 342-5760; www.taubmanmuseum. org
Note: Dennis Weller, the curator of Northern European Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, will give a talk about the Rembrandt etchings at 6  p.m. Thursday in the museum’s theater. Admission $5 for nonmembers; free for members. 

The Taubman Museum of Art’s anniversary weekend celebration

FRIDAY
The museum opens four new exhibitions, including:
-- “Sordid and Sacred: The Beggar’s in Rembrandt’s Etchings from the John Villarino Collection,” a collection of 35 rare images from the 17th-century Dutch master.
-- “Jumpstart and Holler: Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra,” an exhibit of modern-day prints by a pair of artisans from the South that includes a “tent city” created specifically for the Taubman to complement the Rembrandt display.
-- “Russell Richards: Thoughts about Life and Death,” colorful and uncompromising etchings and lithographs by a Charlottesville-based artist.
-- “Peter Eudenbach: Cause and Effect,” a mixed-media exhibit with motorized gadgets doubling as commentaries on 20th-century masterworks.  
Also, the museum will hold a celebration from 7 p.m. to midnight with a performance by Southern Culture on the Skid s. Tickets to the concert are $35, $ 25  for members, and can be purchased by calling 204-4122 or online at www.taubmanmuseum.org/calendar.

SATURDAY: One Year Anniversary Family Day
Admission to the museum will be free all day.
The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra’s youth ensemble will perform for kids at 11 a.m. in the museum’s Advance Auto Parts Auditorium.
Family activities — including magicians, jugglers, stilt-walkers, face painting, art activities — will take place from noon to 4 p.m.

For more information, visit www.taubmanmuseum.org or call (540) 342-5760.