Rembrandt at 400

hile in Edinburgh last week, I visited the excellent exhibition of etchings by Rembrandt at the Scottish National Gallery, organised to mark the 400th anniversary of the artist's birth.

It's a relatively small exhibition, with about 30 etchings, and although the labels repeatedly reminded us that Rembrandt was a master of mixing techniques in the his work, there was no detailed explanation of the effects of this.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful collection, ranging from gentle landscapes etched while standing in front of the scenes, to portraits and biblical scenes. These latter were the most dramatic, with heavy contrast between light and shade. A few were shown in different stages, so you could see how much they had been altered.

Radio 3 has a programme about Rembrandt tonight to mark the anniversary, but the prospect reminds me of Steve Martin's comment that "talking about music is like dancing about architecture".

Tags: Rembrandt | etching | Edinburgh | exhibition