Although Rembrandt's study of the Bible has long been recognized as intense, his interest in secular literature has been relatively neglected. Yet Philips Angel (1641) praised Rembrandt for "diligently seeking out the knowledge of histories from old musty books." Amy Golahny elaborates on this observation, reconstructing Rembrandt's library on the evidence of the 1656 inventory and discerning anew how Rembrandt's reading of histories contributed to his creative process. Golahny places Rembrandt in the learned vernacular culture of seventeenth-century Holland and shows the painter to have been a pragmatic reader whose attention to historical texts strengthened his early rivalry with Rubens for visual drama and narrative erudition.

Amy Golahny is the Richmond Professor of Art History at Lycoming College, and president of the international organization Historians of Netherlandish Art. Her publications include Rembrandt's Reading and many articles on Dutch art.

Table of Contents - 6 Acknowledgments - 10 Preface: The Scope of the Study - 14 1 Book Culture - 18 The Image of the Reader in Rembrandt’s Art - 20 Rembrandt as Rag-picker and Book-hunter? - 25 The Ubiquitous Book - 26 The Humanist Library and its Organization - 30 The Process of Reading - 35 Reading to Illustrate: Rembrandt's Ship of Fortune and Medea - 37 Observations on Literary Theory and Painting - 43 Rembrandt’s Judas - 47 2 Rembrandt’s Training - 50 Academic Studies - 52 Rembrandt’s Apprenticeship to Jacob van Swanenburgh - 60 Pieter Lastman: Pedantic Literacy - 65 Rembrandt’s Scholarly Acquaintances - 73 3 Rembrandt‘s Bookshelf - Part I - 76 The 1656 Inventory and its 22 Books in the Breestraat House - 78 Callot’s Gants Jerusalem - 82 Dürer’s proportie boeck - 89 4 Rembrandt’s Bookshelf - Part II - 106 Rembrandt’s Proserpina: Visual Rhetoric from Claudian and Scaliger - 108 Amorous Myths from Ovid - 114 Reading Homer: Vulcan’s Net - 123 The Historical Homer: Poet and Teacher - 131 Artemisia: Devotion in Body and Soul - 138 5 Rembrandt’s Bookshelf - Part III - 144 A Confrontation: Popilius Laenas and Antiochus - 147 Livy as a Studio Resource: Lucretia, Scipio, Dido - 156 Stimmer’s Josephus - 173 6 Rembrandt’s Later Imagery - 190 The Amsterdam Town Hall - 193 The Oath of Civilis - 196 A Case of Kindness: Pyrrhus - 200 Defying Mortality: Zeuxis Laughing - 208 7 Artists’ Libraries - 216 Avoiding Error: Advice to the Artist - 227 An Essential Reading List - 239 Rembrandt’s Library Concluded - 246 Notes - 252 Bibliography - 271 Illustration Acknowledgments - 284 Index - 287