Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn:

The collection of Rombrandts in Soviet museums - one of the finest in the world - is sumptuously illustrated and documented with scholarly breadth and precision in this beautiful volume. Each of the twenty-nine paintings (23 fromn the Hermitage, Leningrad; 6 from the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow) is reproduced in full colour admirably true to the Rembrandt palette. In addition there are 57 large full-colour plates of details of the paintings, chosen with great discernment to bring the viewer close to the canvas. Aside from the aesthetic reward to be gained from viewing these marvelous works, there is much to be learned from the present book. Two introductory articles provide a history of the collection of Rembrandt's paintings in Russia and an art-historical study of them. Then, in the Notes on the Plates the reader finds, for each painting, not only its provenance, a list of exhibitions in which it has been shown, and a bibliography, but a detailed analysis, includiug the information gained from X-ray study. For good measure the X-rays are reproduced, together with collateral works (paintings, etchings, drawings). Some of Rembrandt's most famous paintings are in this collection — among them the masterpieces "Danae", "The Return of the Prodigal Son", and "The Holy Family with Angels". Indeed, the group is so representative of the spectrum of Rembrandt's work, and the presentation is so glowing as to illustration and so fascinating as to fact, that the reader limited to owning one book on the great master would be well advised to choose this one.