Rembrandt

"Rembrandt's Eyes," by Simon Schama. Alfred A. Knopf. 640 pages. $50.The problem with Rembrandt has always been that precious little is known for sure about the artist's life. This has left scholarly biographers with a dilemma: Either paint the life in broad strokes while concentrating mainly on the work (not so easy, actually, since the authenticity of so many Rembrandts remains in dispute), or indulge in massive, albeit informed, speculation about the life and risk blurring the line between history and historical fiction.

If you sat down to a bowl of pasta named after a 19th-century post-Impressionist, would you expect a work of art? The Artful Gourmet Bistro in Owings Mills has the look and feel of a polite, mid-scale suburban chain with a taste that leans more on market savvy than daring. The restaurant's also apparently, and I think for good reason, a popular place to grab a quick or lingering lunch. But given blackened salmon on grilled focaccia, how does one arrive at Rembrandt? 12:10 We marched past the unattended host station and stopped at a short deli-style counter.

Greatness is accorded the treatment it deserves in "Rembrandt: The Museum's Collection," the Baltimore Museum of Art's inspiring and deeply moving exhibit of Rembrandt prints (through April 21). The fact that this is a home-grown show, drawn from the museum's collection rather than from sources around the world, and the fact that it consists of modest-sized prints rather than big, splashy paintings, should not lead the prospective visitor to think of it as anything other than one of the most important exhibits we will ever be offered.

Forty-two years after Rembrandt's Portrait of a Boy in Fancy Dress, or Titus, made an appearance in Washington, D.C., the painting will return to the National Gallery of Art to launch a series of loan exchanges with the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif. The portrait -- which appeared on the cover of Time magazine and in the gallery in 1965, after Simon purchased it -- will be on view in the nation's capital from May 11 to Sept. 4. It can be seen at the Simon museum through May 6. Future loans are under discussion; the Simon is expected to send a major work to Washington every other year and bring a National Gallery piece of equal quality to Pasadena on alternate years.

Rembrandt brought his distinctive touch to so many diverse subjects that one needs a good-sized exhibit to do him justice. That's why the generous selection of 95 Rembrandt prints currently on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art is such a welcome opportunity to see what the artist can do with a homely cottage or for that matter a homely face.It's impressive to consider that the exhibited prints are culled from the BMA's collection of more than 260 Rembrandt prints, many of which were originally collected by Baltimorean T. Harrison Garrett in the 1880s.

Forty-two years after Rembrandt's Portrait of a Boy in Fancy Dress, or Titus, made an appearance in Washington, D.C., the painting will return to the National Gallery of Art to launch a series of loan exchanges with the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif. The portrait -- which appeared on the cover of Time magazine and in the gallery in 1965, after Simon purchased it -- will be on view in the nation's capital from May 11 to Sept. 4. It can be seen at the Simon museum through May 6. Future loans are under discussion; the Simon is expected to send a major work to Washington every other year and bring a National Gallery piece of equal quality to Pasadena on alternate years.

I WAS ASTOUNDED recently when I walked into a local gallery and saw a trio of etchings by the 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt Van Rijn for what seemed like peanuts prices.I hasten to add that by "peanuts" I'm speaking in relative, not absolute, terms. Even at around $2,000 apiece, those lovely Rembrandts were way out of my price range.Still, I had been accustomed to thinking of Rembrandt etchings as quarter-million-dollar commodities.How come these were so cheap?From Craig Flinner, the gallery owner, I learned that the etchings offered for sale were not made during Rembrandt's lifetime but rather were later impressions printed anywhere from 100 to 150 years after the master's death.

Maybe the principal reason for Rembrandt's immense appeal to viewers through the centuries is his ability to make any scene, even when he's dealing with the most exalted subject matter, both human and natural. We see this quality all over "The Age of Rembrandt," the Baltimore Museum of Art's excellent exhibit of the prints of Rembrandt and his contemporaries.In "The Death of the Virgin" (1639), the artist has created a complex scene with many people in various states of emotion surrounding the large bed on which the Virgin expires.

For almost 50 years it had languished in a box at the Baltimore Museum of Art -- carefully stored, not ignored, but thought of secondary importance among the museum's 250 Rembrandt prints: a counterproof of the first state of an etching titled "Jan Uytenbogaert, Receiver-General ('The Gold-Weigher')" (1639).Interesting to have, especially since the collection also includes two impressions of the final state -- or stage of development -- of the same print; but not really worth exhibiting.Then, about two months ago, when he was preparing the exhibit "Rembrandt: The Museum's Collection," which opens Tuesday, Jay M. Fisher, BMA curator of prints, drawings and photographs, invited his counterpart at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Rembrandt scholar Clifford Ackley, down to Baltimore to look at the collection.

The exhibition that opens today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington can be summed up in two words: Seventeen Rembrandts. That's 17 paintings by one of the greatest Dutch Masters of all time, plus half again as many of the artist's famous prints, based on episodes from the New Testament. The show's title, Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits, at first seems ridiculously unassuming. It's true that the actual number of pictures on display is so modest that the curator, the NGA's Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., can truthfully describe the show as "a small focus exhibition."

When business is brisk, Hai-ou Hou, owner of Gallery International on North Charles Street, usually can be found chatting with visitors in the front rooms of her white-cube gallery or talking long-distance with her far-flung network of artists. But when things slow a bit, as they often do in August, Hai-ou (pronounced "HI-oh"; she doesn't use her Chinese surname) is likely to retreat into the cluttered space behind her gallery, where stocks of paints, canvas and easels await. "Then, I paint," she says.

The exhibition that opens today at the National Gallery of Art in Washington can be summed up in two words: Seventeen Rembrandts. That's 17 paintings by one of the greatest Dutch Masters of all time, plus half again as many of the artist's famous prints, based on episodes from the New Testament. The show's title, Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits, at first seems ridiculously unassuming. It's true that the actual number of pictures on display is so modest that the curator, the NGA's Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., can truthfully describe the show as "a small focus exhibition."

Etchings and engravings were big in northern Europe during the 17th century. Mass literacy ignited during the Protestant Reformation created an unprecedented demand for books, and engravings became the rage for artists eager to place their paintings, sculptures and drawings before the public. The opportunity for money and fame had never been greater. As Rembrandt: The Consummate Etcher and Other 17th Century Printmakers, an exhibit on display at the Mitchell Gallery in Annapolis through Feb. 20 makes clear, even the greatest Dutch master of them all was inspired by this medium.

Backing out from the Inner Harbor amid paddleboats and water taxis, the 49-passenger American Eagle looks more like a yacht than a cruise ship. But this summer in Baltimore, cruise ships will come in all shapes and sizes. The new American Eagle, built on the Eastern Shore in Salisbury, is making one of the 21 cruises scheduled out of Baltimore this year. And other ships leaving from Philadelphia and New York will make it easy for area residents to cruise to Canada, Bermuda, the Bahamas and other destinations without the hassle of flying to their port of departure.

"Rembrandt's Eyes," by Simon Schama. Alfred A. Knopf. 640 pages. $50.The problem with Rembrandt has always been that precious little is known for sure about the artist's life. This has left scholarly biographers with a dilemma: Either paint the life in broad strokes while concentrating mainly on the work (not so easy, actually, since the authenticity of so many Rembrandts remains in dispute), or indulge in massive, albeit informed, speculation about the life and risk blurring the line between history and historical fiction.

"Sliders," the sci-fi series that refuses to die, returns for a fifth season at 9 p.m. Friday on Cable's Sci-Fi channel, with a new twist on the old "How do you explain away the disappearance of former cast members?" dilemma.Within the show's first segment, two of our inter-dimensional time travelers, Quinn and Colin, are apparently blasted into a couple of thousand light shards while moving from one dimension to the next. What emerges is a whole new character who says his name is Mallory and who's apparently got Quinn inside of him somewhere.

Etchings and engravings were big in northern Europe during the 17th century. Mass literacy ignited during the Protestant Reformation created an unprecedented demand for books, and engravings quickly became the rage for artists eager to place their paintings, sculptures and drawings before a new and admiring public. The opportunity for money and fame had never been greater. As Rembrandt: The Consummate Etcher and Other 17th Century Printmakers, an exhibit on display at the Mitchell Gallery in Annapolis through Feb. 20 makes clear, even the greatest Dutch master of them all was inspired by this medium.

When business is brisk, Hai-ou Hou, owner of Gallery International on North Charles Street, usually can be found chatting with visitors in the front rooms of her white-cube gallery or talking long-distance with her far-flung network of artists. But when things slow a bit, as they often do in August, Hai-ou (pronounced "HI-oh"; she doesn't use her Chinese surname) is likely to retreat into the cluttered space behind her gallery, where stocks of paints, canvas and easels await. "Then, I paint," she says.

Sherman Block,74, head of the nation's largest sheriff's department, died Thursday of cerebral hemorrhaging in Los Angeles, five days before county voters were to decide whether to give him a fifth term. He was the nation's highest-paid elected official, earning $234,016 a year -- more than the president's $200,000 annual salary.Anthony J. Celebrezze,88, a Cleveland mayor who went on to become a Kennedy administration Cabinet member and a federal appeals court judge, died Thursday in Cleveland from cancer of the esophagus.