Rembrandt’s Bathsheba Reading King David’s Letter

Rembrandt’s masterful Bathsheba Reading King David’s Letter is unusual both as a history painting and as a portrayal of a nude. Instead of displaying a sumptuous body for the viewer’s delectation, Bathsheba elicits our empathy. This collection of essays by seven leading Rembrandt scholars examines its qualities from perspectives ranging from changing perceptions of female beauty and the nude, technical analysis, and biographical and psychological analysis of the artist, the subject, and the viewer. The juxtaposition of these different approaches to a single work highlights how both the artist and his art are constructed through the questions we ask, and facilitates a comparison of some of the different approaches practiced by art historians today.

• Six original essays by leading Rembrandt scholars • Joins already published titles in the Masterpieces of Western Painting series • Unique approach, juxtaposing different approaches to a single work of art

Introduction: perspectives on Rembrandt and his works Ann Jensen Adams; 1. Rembrandt’s Bathsheba: the object and its transformations Ernst van de Wetering; 2. Rembrandt’s Bathsheba and the conventions of a seductive theme Eric Jan Sluijter; 3. An incomparable Bathsheba Leo Steinberg; 4. Reading Bathsheba: from mastercodes to misfits Mieke Bal; 5. Not Bathsheba: I. The painter and the model Svetlana Alpers; II. Uriah’s gaze Margaret D. Carroll; 6. ‘Though Deficient in Beauty’: the reluctant, then hyperbolic reception of a masterpiece Gary Schwartz.