Rembrandt and the Female Nude by Eric Jan Sluijter

These and other sources enable the author to discern what was unique and distinctive about Rembrandt's female nudes, which soon elicited quite scathing criticims. Visual inspiration from Italy, especially Titian, and from Netherlandish images of myth, particularly by Goltzius and his generation as well as the Rubens circle, provided the solid foundations-often through engravings-on which Rembrandt built. What makes this book so valuable-aside from the clarity of exposition and cogency of interpretations by Sluijter-is his wide-ranging comparisons to artists beyond Rembrandt. Most of these chapters elaborate upon a shorter published essay on the separate subjects: Andromeda, Susannah and the Elders, Diana and Actaeon, Danae, and Bathsheba, but they are interspersed with erudite discussions (intermezzi) on such topics as Dutch cultural attitudes towards the nude and artistic practices of producing the nude from female models. Now, in a culmination of his research interests, he turns his attention to Rembrandt, focusing on his mythic, including biblical, stories that expressly focus on the nude. Eric Jan Sluijter, professor of Dutch and Renaissance art history at the University of Leiden, wrote his earlier studies exploring the Dutch visualization of Greco-Roman myths as well as interpretive issues concerning the female nude in Dutch art. This book is one of those projects, a masterwork by a mature and leading scholar fully in control of his materials. Some scholarly projects have a vitality of their own, progressing from particular studies to a richly layered synthesis. Review by LARRY SILVER, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Rembrandt and the Female Nude by Eric Jan Sluijter