ABSTRACT
Rembrandt was so widely famed and highly regarded as a teacher that his studio functioned as a graduate school for artists who had already been trained. The elaborate still-life in the foreground is a distraction that would not be found in a painting of the nature by Rembrandt. Jan Lievens is an artist who must be considered in connection with the Rembrandt "school," though he was never a pupil of Rembrandt's. In 1628, Rembrandt already had a pupil, Gerrit Dou, who was bom in Leiden in 1613. Govert Flinck's colors, however, are more varied and intense, and he falls short of Rembrandt's ability to unify through light and shadow. Prominent among the pupils of his later years was Nicolaes Maes, who was from Dordrecht, where he was born in 1634. The expressive power of light and darkness is the thematic core of the visionary Jacob Duck's Dream, Aert de Gelder's worthy tribute to his great teacher's unique style.
