A painter and a poet

Bartolomeus, 1657

Had he been a poet instead of a painter, Rembrandt would have seduced countless women with his love sonnets. Every lover would have believed him when he wrote yet another poem that swore undying devotion to her unrivaled feet and peerless earlobes.

His portraits convey pretty much the same message, after all. Each one says: "Here, stripped bare, is the true essence of this person, the depth of his or her soul in paint. Have you ever met anyone so authentic and remarkable?" Painting after painting makes that point.

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The flawed humanity of his saints is the heart of the art, and what gives it spiritual truth.

Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times

"Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC., through May 1.