There's two different ways that Berger's argument is exhibited. This is because "oil painting was, before everything else, a medium which celebrated private possessions." We should remember this fact and temper our opinions of these oil paintings accordingly. As Berger details, "we should not confuse such exceptional works with the purpose and significance of the general tradition" of oil painting. John Berger doesn't want us to fall into the trap of museums and art experts that all these old oil paintings are exquisite and beautiful art. Ultimately, though, we must remember what the main purpose of oil painting is. Mostly, he describes that oil paintings allowed artists to be a lot more detailed in their work, so the immense amount of possessions could be carefully painting with this great detail. Why did this idea come about with oil paintings specifically? John Berger doesn't give too much detail about why oil paintings brought this about. Yet, even though Berger claims Rembrandt is making commentary against oil painting tradition, the painting still adheres to it! The painting would be valued somewhere around 3 million pounds. The portrait of him later in life, though, is barren of these possessions to comment on the oil painting style. The young portrait embodies all of the principles of displaying incredible wealth and possessions. Near the end of the video, Berger describes Rembrandt's self portraits. But this is just perpetuation of the tradition of oil paintings. As Berger points out, it's ironic that we then protect these paintings and guard them for fear of someone stealing the image of the desired objects depicted in the painting. This is similar to the icon discussion in McCloud's "The Vocabulary of Comics". We are looking at images of the things that may exist somewhere, but they aren't tangible in this painting. When these objects are depicted in art, however, they are no longer real. In life, we have real and tangible objects. This is the main argument made by Berger about oil paintings. The subject of the art isn't necessarily art, but instead the wealth and purchasing power, the fact that it's merchandise. If the image is of yourself, then the point is to depict all of your possessions with you in the middle of them. He argues that oil paintings exist mainly to depict the owner's wealth. This is a video by John Berger about the true meaning of European oil paintings and what traditions they have.
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