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What artistic skills did Jacob van Swanenburgh teach Rembrandt?
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Rembrandt
Self-Portrait, oil on canvas by Rembrandt, 1659; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Jacob van Swanenburgh, who served as Rembrandt’s first master for approximately three years, taught him the fundamental skills and professional knowledge required of a painter.1
Specifically, Van Swanenburgh was a specialist in architectural pieces and scenes depicting hell and the underworld. These subjects required a high level of technical proficiency in painting fire and its reflections on surrounding objects. It is believed that this early training in managing such complex pictorial problems may have contributed to Rembrandt’s lifelong fascination with the effects of light.1