Rembrandt and the Female Nude

Already provocative in the seventeenth century, Rembrandt's female nudes continue to elicit strong responses. How did Rembrandt's radical departure from traditional ways of representing the naked female body measure up in the eyes of his contemporaries? What is it about these extraordinary works that generates such powerful emotions, varying from outright condemnation to celebration? The author addresses such questions by examining the choices that Rembrandt made when faced with pictorial conven