| Preface | X |
| Acknowledgements | XIII |
I | Introduction: Rembrandt--an Alchemist? | 2 |
| Workshop Secrets | 6 |
| The Self-Supporting Studio? | 8 |
II | Painting Materials and Working Methods of the Young Rembrandt | 10 |
| The Support | 11 |
| The Ground | 17 |
| The First Sketch, the Monochrome Underpainting and the First Lay-in of Colour | 23 |
| The 'Working-up' | 32 |
III | Lost Drawings and the Use of Erasable Drawing Boards and 'Tafeletten' | 46 |
| Lost Drawing Excrcises | 48 |
| 'Tavolette' | 53 |
| Drawing Tablets in Seventeenth-Century Prints, a False Lead? | 58 |
| 'Tafeletten' and 'Tablets a Papier' | 60 |
| Surviving Dutch 'Tafeletten' | 62 |
IV | The Creation of the Pictorial Idea | 74 |
| On the Function of Drawings | 75 |
| The Painting Contest | 81 |
| Rembrandt's Studio Scene and its Art-Theoretical Statement | 87 |
V | The Canvas Support | 90 |
| Introduction | 91 |
| Radiographs as a Means of Studying the Canvas | 93 |
| Historic Sources on the Nature and Origin of Canvas Used by Painters | 95 |
| Thread Density | 96 |
| Problems in Determining the Warp Direction | 97 |
| Thread Density and Weave Characteristics of Canvases by or Attributed to Rembrandt | 100 |
| Interpreting Cusping | 111 |
| Strip Widths and Painting Formats | 123 |
| Some Remarks on the Grounds of Rembrandt's Canvases | 129 |
VI | The Palette; on the Relationship between Style and Painting Technique | 132 |
| Selective Palettes | 136 |
| The Development of the Palette as a Tool | 141 |
| Palettes for the Blue Robe, a White Horse or Human Skin | 144 |
| Technical Limitations | 148 |
| Rembrandt's Use of Limited Palettes and the Concept of 'Houding' | 149 |
VII | Rembrandt's Brushwork and Illusionism; an Art-Theoretical Approach | 154 |
| The Visible Brushstroke | 160 |
| Traditional Formulae and Experimental Developments | 169 |
| Paint Surface and the Evocation of Space | 179 |
VIII | Rembrandt's Method of Working in the 'Night Watch' and his Late Paintings | 192 |
| Doerner's 'Glazing Myth' | 193 |
| The Night Watch | 195 |
| The Late Rembrandt | 203 |
| The Local 'Imprimatura' | 211 |
| Elaborating the Flesh Tints | 215 |
IX | The Search for Rembrandt's Binding Medium | 224 |
| Questioning the Painter's Eye | 225 |
| Questioning the Scientists' Results | 229 |
| A New Effort to 'Break the Code' | 234 |
| Additions to Rembrandt's Paint | 236 |
X | The Impact of Time and Rembrandt's Ideas on Colour and Tone | 244 |
| The Yellowed Varnish and the Different Aging of Paint | 245 |
| Rembrandt's Intentions with Colour and Tone | 251 |
| The Aging of Pigments | 257 |
| The Darkening of Paint and the Etchings as Touchstones | 262 |
XI | Perspectives on the Quality of Rembrandt's Art | 264 |
| Rembrandt, the Famous Painter | 265 |
| Contemporary Praise | 268 |
| The Craftsman and the Artist | 272 |
| Epilogue on Quality | 273 |
| Biographical Data, and Chronological List of Rembrandt's Works Reproduced in this Book | 283 |
| Notes | 292 |
| Bibliography | 312 |
| Glossary | 321 |
| Index | 326 |
| Concordance | 337 |
| Photo Acknowledgements | 340 |