Taylor proves a joy to read. Hitherto a translator of French poetry, he has made himself thoroughly at home with the art historical evidence and he deftly unfolds a life story in precis around the self-portraits and such pictures as the Bathsheba. Taylor's eye seems to keep pace with Rembrandt's brush, here brusque, there punctilious; his diction is chunky and sensual; he loves to imagine, to cast similes, to surf whatever breakers of emotion the picture rolls his way . Peering so keenly, Taylor does indeed touch on the quick of the art, and yet the mystery of its relation to the culture around it stays intact.--Julian Bell"New York Review of Books" (09/21/2007)