Rembrandt and the great Dutch masters

Although he was forging his own, novel vision of Christ, Rembrandt was drawing on diverse references, particularly the art of the Renaissance. He was an avid collector of prints, from Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, and the vast visual culture this brought him infused his creation. Rembrandt’s ambition was to outdo the great etchers—Mantegna, Lucas van Leyden, and Dürer—while never forgetting the importance of sentiment and emotion, a lesson he had learnt at firsthand from his master, Pieter Lastman, without whose example the reverence and power of his imagery would have been inconceivable. This section focuses on some of the key references in the Rembrandtesque repertoire.