Rembrandt’s mother was a Protestant, who brought up her son with a thorough knowledge of the Scripture stories, and it was the Bible that remained to the end of his life one of the few books he had in his house.  The dramatic situations that he loved were there in plenty.  Over and over again he painted the Nativity of Christ.  Sometimes the Baby is in a tiny Dutch cradle with its face just peeping out, and the shepherds adoring it by candle-light.  Often he painted scenes from the Old Testament; such as Isaac blessing Esau and Jacob, who are shown as two little Dutch children.  Simeon receiving the Infant Christ in the Temple is a favourite subject, because of the varied effects that could be produced by the gloom of the church and the light on the figure of the High Priest.  These, and many other beautiful pictures, were studies painted for the increase of the artist’s own knowledge, not orders from citizens of Leyden, or of Amsterdam, to which capital he moved in 1630.  At the same time he was coming more and more into demand as a portrait-painter.  These were days in which he made money fast, and spent it faster.  He had a craving to surround himself with beautiful works of art and beautiful objects of all kinds that should take him away from the dunes and canals into a world of romance within his own house.  He disliked the stiff Dutch clothes and the great starched white ruffs worn by the women of the day.  He had to paint them in his portraits; but when he painted his beautiful wife, Saskia, she is decked in embroideries and soft shimmering stuffs.  Wonderful clasps and brooches fasten her clothes.  Her hair is dressed with gold chains, and great strings of pearls hang from her neck and arms.  Rembrandt makes the light sparkle on the diamonds and glimmer on the pearls.  Sometimes he adorns her with flowers and paints her as Flora.  Again, she is fastening a jewel in her hair, and Rembrandt himself stands by with a rope of pearls for her to don.  All these jewels and rich materials belonged to him.  He also bought antique marbles, pictures by Giorgione and Titian, engravings by Durer, and four volumes of Raphael’s drawings, besides many other beautiful works of art.

These were splendid years, years in which he was valued by his contemporaries for the work he did for them, and years in which every picture he painted for himself gave him fresh experience.  A picture of the anatomy class of a famous physician had been among the first with which Rembrandt made a great public success.  Every face in it—­and there were eight living faces—­was a masterpiece of portraiture, and all were fitly grouped and united in the rapt attention with which they followed the demonstration of their teacher.