Last year marked the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth, and in this slim, intensely focused volume, Paris-based scholar Taylor (translator of Pierre Schneider's seminal work, Matisse
) presents an unusual and carefully researched study that stands alone while acknowledging the author's debt to Simon Schama's Rembrandt's Eyes
. “If the sitter is the lead actor of a performance... then the nose is his understudy on the stage of the face,” Taylor writes with characteristic verve, underscoring a major theme: the drama of physiognomy and how Rembrandt engaged it in innovative ways and with emotive depth. For Rembrandt, Taylor argues, the nose is a sensual, sexual, vital and often definitive element in his portraits and self-portraits. Taylor's study presents a broader chronological exploration of the painter's portrayal of the human form and the self-portraits he obsessively created throughout his life. Several of Taylor's themes are familiar, such as Rembrandt's interest in the body's physical decline. Yet his perspective is often fresh and probing; the discussion of moral blindness and “seeing-in-blindness” in Rembrandt's Tobit series is particularly illuminating. Taylor's prose is elegant and his interpretations show engagement with Rembrandt scholarship, making this book appealing. to those with a general interest in Rembrandt as well as to scholars of the painter and period. 49 illus. (July 1)
