Rembrandt

Summary: In The Night Watch and his portraits of the richest merchants in Amsterdam, Rembrandt has made something dramatic and grand out of a prosaic world of money. with the nouveau riche struggling between ostentation and religious restraint. Ten years later, he is widowed and bankrupt, out of fashion and dismissed as an obstinately rough painter in a smooth age. Then he is offered the chance of a comeback: a commission for the new Amsterdam Town Hall. But instead of the classical restraint and grandeur required, Rembrandt creates the roughest toughest history painting ever, and one of the greatest masterpieces of his age. Using a combination of dramatic reconstruction, photography, and Schama's narration, looks at this artist's life and works, with extensive commentary on The Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilus.