Rembrandt : The Painter at Work

Rating:
Summary: Everyone can be Rembrandt... NOT.
Review: OK, so I read it all. Yep, everything in it, every inch of it. This includes in-depth discussions on materials, choices of colors, choices of canvases, panels, brushworks, techniques, history... of this genius painter. I also gobbled up scientific results on samples taken from his paintings, using such cutting-edge technologies as mass spectrometry (MS), x-ray analysis, and so on and so forth. Hurrah! All secrets revealed! I even read "between the lines" and "looking into" layers of colors in each painting with the hope of educating myself further how to think like Rembrandt, see like Rembrandt, and paint like Rembrandt. After all, I am on a mission here. You probably get the idea by now of how great this book is. Otherwise, I would have not bothered. Yep, you can count on it, it is GREAT! But... Yeah, without the 'but', then perhaps thing is just perfect, hence surreal. Some presumption in scientific testing seems to leave me a little "bitter aftertaste". Well, I said too much. It is time for me to stop and for you to read the book to find out for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: The best monograph on Rembrandt ever printed
Review: Rembrandt is perhaps the greatest painter in the history of the western cannon and this is the finest book on his work ever printed. The abundance of detailed enlargements -which really make an art book great and which are all too often lacking- are the next best thing to being in front of the paintings. They show Rembrandt for the enormous genius he was, both synthesizing the techniques that came before him as well as creating methods of application which to this day remain an enigma and elusive mystery. Rembrandt, a great draughtsman and technician, was also an outrageous innovator. The details in this book show sections of paintings that would make any abstracts expressionist's head spin. The scholarship of the text, clearly a lobour of love and lifetime devotion, are as worthy as scholarsip can be of art this magnificent.

Rating:
Summary: What a lovely book.
Review: This book has incredible prints and very good information on Rembrandt's painting technique. It is a wonderful book for anyone interested in how Rembrandt painted.