Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is enjoying much attention in 2019 on the 350th anniversary of his death. This course examines his work in context of his training, his network, and his impact on artists of his time, taking into account recent research. Rembrandt’s background includes a fine education at the Leiden Latin school, which included drawing. He trained with two artists, Jacob van Swanenburg and Pieter Lastman, who gave him secondhand experience with Italy and Italian art currents. We will discuss works by Rembrandt with respect to this educational and artistic background, considering textual sources and pictorial precedent. Rembrandt relied on past imagery in order to vary it, and strove for a startling effect upon the viewer. We will examine his works for their dependence on and variance from precedent. Rembrandt’s early precocity and ambition were noticed by his contemporaries, and contributed to his meteoric rise in the Amsterdam art market. His brash self-confidence contributed to his difficulties with patrons and waning fortunes in his later years.