Rembrandt's Eyes

The unparalleled master of popular historical narrative Simon Schama brilliantly combines the flair of a professional novelist with the meticulousness of a professional historian to create a dynamic and comprehensive image of the Netherlands in the 17th century – the... times when the Leiden native Rembrandt van Rijn, triumphantly showcasing the heights that Dutch painting could achieve, won for many centuries the title of the greatest of painters. The few surviving documented accounts of the life and professional activities of the artist are skillfully woven into the colorful fabric of a vast and diverse historical context. The commercial hustle and political intrigues, the confrontation between the Spanish Habsburgs and the Dutch Republic, Catholics and Protestants, the flourishing of democratic art in the Netherlands, and the sparkling painting of the 'artist of kings' Rubens – a turbulent, whimsical world where the art of the New Age was born. A world that became the stage for the life and creativity of the Dutch Rembrandt van Rijn – an artist whose paintings seem to triumph over reality.