He only knew he “fell in love” with the beggar printed on a small sheet of paper when he encountered him one day in a gallery in Beverly Hills.
“I saw his eyes, and his look was, ‘I'm going to conquer the world,' ” said the Encino, Calif., man while studying one of Rembrandt's famous etchings in the University of Montana's Meloy Gallery.
Villarino, in fact, has no background in the visual arts whatsoever, unless you count his work as a set construction designer for such Hollywood moguls as Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis and James Cameron.
His list of Hollywood credits is impressive, but Villarino was humbled by this one magnificent etching. And so it was in 1994 that Villarino began collecting these extraordinarily rare prints, ones made directly from the original drypoint-scratched plates during Rembrandt's lifetime in the mid-1600s.
Now on the walls of the Meloy Gallery, the etchings normally fill a couple of walls in Villarino's home, which was decorated with lots of “guy stuff” before Villarino discovered this late passion.
“Before these, I owned absolutely nothing, no prints at all - just the usual Coors mirrors,” said Villarino, who is in Missoula to view the traveling exhibit of his own possessions.
The exhibit, “Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings,” continues at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture through April 29.
Once Villarino saw the beggar in the Gallerie Michael in Beverly Hills, something in him clicked. He had to have it, not as a novelty, but as a work that stoked in him a deep love of art that is lit to this day.
“I fell in love with art as a whole,” he said. “I was never, ever introduced to it. But once I found that you could walk into a museum and that you could go get what you wanted, purchase it, well, that was just amazing.”
Over the next 14 years, Villarino bought dozens of Rembrandt etchings, most of them secured by the Beverly Hills gallery.
It is, he admitted, a very expensive hobby - “There are lots of zeros on the wall here,” he said - but it's a hobby that has given him a passion in his middle age.
“I guess it's just me following this passion,” he said. “It could be anything, whether it's cars or hunting.”
As his collection grew, so did his knowledge of the era and the art. It turns out, he said, that there are multiple scholars who've written multiple books on just this phase of Rembrandt's life, including UM professor Valerie Hedquist, who is an expert on 17th-century Dutch art.
“Every day, I'm learning,” he said. “They really get into these etchings, and they analyze every little piece. It's amazing what you learn and what you retain.”
Not that he had romance in mind when starting his collection, but it also helped on the first date with the woman who is now his wife.
Catherine Cardinal, a best-selling author and relationship counselor, was impressed with Villarino immediately, but even more after learning of his love for the Rembrandts.
“On our first date, he said, ‘You want to come over and see my etchings?' ” she said, laughing.
The more she studied the etchings, the more she fell in love with the man who is now her husband.
“I was starting to see the layers in these etchings,” she said. “I was also discovering the layers of this man.”
It's been two years since Villarino's collection has been home, once it does come home - right after the Missoula exhibit - he'll put them right up on his walls again, not in some vault where they can't be appreciated.
“They're just too beautiful to sit in a box,” he said.
Rembrandt review
A lecture by UM art professor Valerie Hedquist, titled “The Place of the Beggar in Dutch Society,” takes place Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Meloy Gallery of the Montana Museum of Art & Culture. In addition, a newly acquired Rembrandt etching, “Beggar Leaning on a Stick,” which hasn't seen a public viewing in at least 15 years, will be unveiled. The event is free and open to the public.
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