The Rembrandt Book

Rembrandt is one of the most important painters in European art history, and this large, lavishly illustrated volume reinforces that image without skirting controversy (including debates over some of his works' authenticity). Dutch art scholar and columnist Schwartz is clearly an expert on the artist, encapsulating his style in sharp bursts of insight: “Human weakness and—especially—human strength inspired him. He found it not only in heroic action but also in resignation and introspection.” But the author doesn't shy from paintings considered less successful, such as the so-called “Leiden history painting,” “full of portentous details that do not correspond sufficiently to any known iconography.” In contextualizing these works, Schwartz is careful to explain Rembrandt's beliefs, worldview and inspiration: “The text [of the Bible] was, however, only one of the givens... [along] with non-biblical literary sources; models in older art... antiquarian research; knowledge of folkways... and his own imagination.” It's this complete view that makes the book so insightful, but it's the personal details that will gain readers' trust: “Few artists' biographers had anything nice to say about him as a person.” This detailed, down-to-earth character sketching, combined with solid biographic and historical information, makes this book as intellectually substantial as it is gorgeous. 700 full-color illus. (Apr.)