Amsterdam, 1669. Derrière chaque chef-d’œuvre de Rembrandt se cache un homme aussi génial que tourmenté. Ce livre révèle l’artiste et son époque, entre lumière et ombre, grâce à des textes rares et une analyse fine de son héritage.

The name of Dante Alighieri has been universally allowed a place in the very highest rank of literature. It was in his transport of enthusiastic love for Beatrice, that Dante conceived the idea of the Divina Commedia, his great poem, of which Beatrice was destined to be the heroine. Thus to the inspiration of a young, lovely, and noble-minded woman, we owe one of the grandest efforts of human genius. Beatrice was described as a beautiful and virtuous woman. Her history may be considered as an affection of Dante - in that lies its sole interest. She was 24 years old when she died, and yet she still lives in Dante's immortal poem, of which her memory was the inspiration.

Michelangelo's place in the world of art is altogether unique. His supremacy is acknowledged by all, but is understood by a few only. In the presence of his works none can stand unimpressed, yet few dare to claim any intimate knowledge of his art... Michael Angelo was twenty-two years younger than Leonardo da Vinci, but the more severe and reflective cast of his mind rendered their difference of age far less in effect than in reality. It is usual to compare Michael Angelo with Raphael, but he is more aptly compared with Leonardo da Vinci. All the great artists of that time, even Raphael himself, were influenced more or less by these two extraordinary men, but they exercised no influence on each other. They started from opposite points; they pursued throughout their whole existence, and in all they planned and achieved, a course as different as their respective characters... ABOUT THE AUTHORS Anna Brownell Jameson (1794-1860) est une écrivaine et féministe britannique. Réputée pour ses essais critiques sur les héroïnes de Shakespeare et l'art chrétien, elle s'illustre aussi par ses récits de voyage, notamment au Canada. Défenseure de l'éducation et du travail féminin, elle milite pour la coopération entre les sexes dans les oeuvres sociales. Ses écrits marient érudition, sensibilité et engagement. Elle laisse une oeuvre influente sur l'art sacré, la condition des femmes et la philanthropie. Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) was an American writer, publisher, and philosopher, best known for founding the Roycroft artisan community linked to the Arts and Crafts movement. He gained early success as a salesman for the Larkin Soap Company. His notable works include A Message to Garcia and Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. Hubbard and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, perished in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine on May 7, 1915.

This book deals with the life and history of Leonardo Da Vinci, known as one of the greatest painters of the world. The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) is his best known work, the world's most famous painting. "Leonardo da Vinci seems to present in his own person a résumé of all the characteristics of the age in which he lived. He was the miracle of that age of miracles. Ardent and versatile as youth; patient and persevering as age; a most profound and original thinker; the greatest mathematician and most ingenious mechanic of his time; architect, chemist, engineer, musician, poet, painter-we are not only astounded by the variety of his natural gifts and acquired knowledge, but by the practical direction of his amazing powers... "We call the "Mona Lisa" a portrait, and we have been told how La Gioconda sat for the picture, and how the artist invented ways of amusing her, by stories, recitations, the luring strain of hidden lutes, and strange flowers and rare pictures brought in as surprises to animate and cheer. That Leonardo loved this woman we are sure, and that their friendship was close and intimate the world has guessed..."

This book deals with the life and the story of Isaac Newton, the great scientist known as mathematician, astronomer and natural philosopher. "An honest farmer, neither rich nor poor, was Isaac Newton. He was married to Harriet Ayscough in February, Sixteen Hundred Forty-two. Both were strong, intelligent and full of hope. Neither had any education to speak of; they belonged to England's middle class - that oft-despised and much ridiculed middle class which is the hope of the world. Accounts still in existence show that their income was thirty pounds a year. It was for them to toil all the week, go to church on Sunday, and twice or thrice in a year attend the village fairs or indulge in a holiday where hard cider played an important part." The verdict of humanity concerning Sir Isaac Newton has been summed up for us thus by Laplace: "His work was pre-eminent above all other products of the human intellect."

This book deals with the stories of the great musicians. "Music is the youngest of the arts. Modern music dates back about four hundred years. It is not so old as the invention of printing. As an art it began with the work of the priests of the Roman Catholic Church in endeavoring to arrange a liturgy. The medieval chant and the popular folk-song came together, and the science of music was born. Sculpture reached perfection in Greece, painting in Italy, portraiture in Holland; but Germany, the land of thought, has given us nearly all the great musicians and nine-tenths of all our valuable musical compositions."

This book deals with the story of Seneca who was one of the eminent Latin writers and philosophers of the Silver Age. Young, he was fascinated with the philosophical thoughts of the Stoics, to which sect he became devoted. He even adopted the austere modes of life they inculcated, and refused to eat the flesh of animals; but when the emperor, Tiberius, threatened to punish some Jews and Egyptians for abstaining from certain meats, at the suggestion of his father, he departed from this singularity.

This book deals with the life and works of Victor Hugo, one of the great and best-known french writer. His romances occupy an important position in the history of literature. "Men like Victor Hugo can be killed or they may be banished, but they cannot be bought; neither can they be intimidated into silence. He resigned his pension and boldly expressed himself in his own way.He knew history by heart and toyed with it; politics was his delight. But it is a mistake to call him a statesman. He was bold to rashness, impulsive, impatient and vehement. Because a man is great is no reason why he should be proclaimed perfect. Such men as Victor Hugo need no veneer-the truth will answer: he would explode a keg of powder to kill a fly. He was an agitator. But these zealous souls are needed-not to govern or to be blindly followed, but rather to make other men think for themselves. Yet to do this in a monarchy is not safe.The years passed, and the time came for either Hugo or Royalty to go; France was not large enough for both. It proved to be Hugo; a bounty of twenty-five thousand francs was offered for his body, dead or alive. Through a woman's devotion he escaped to Brussels. He was driven from there to Jersey, then to Guernsey.It was nineteen years before he returned to Paris-years of banishment, but years of glory. Exiled by Fate that he might do his work!..."

Though professing philosophy as his guide in life and following her rule, Marcus Aurelus makes no pretence to learning or wisdom for himself. "I have learned from my grandfather Verus : the lessons of noble character and even temper. From my father's reputation and my memory of him: modesty and manliness. From my mother: piety and bountifulness, to keep myself not only from doing evil but even from dwelling on evil thoughts, simplicity too in diet and to be far removed from the ways of the rich. From my mother's grandfather: not to have attended public schools but enjoyed good teachers at home, and to have learned the lesson that on things like these it is a duty to spend liberally. From my tutor: not to become a partisan of the Green jacket or the Blue in the races, nor of Thracian or Samnite gladiators; to bear pain and be content with little; to work with my own hands, to mind my own business, and to be slow to listen to slander."

This book deals with the story of Thomas Edison. This remarkable inventor, of whom the public has heard so much, was born in 1847 at the little village of Milan, Ohio. His mother was of Scotch parentage, but born in Massachusetts; she was finely educated, literary and ambitious, and had been a teacher in Canada. Young Edison's only schooling came from his mother, who taught him spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. He lost his mother in 1862, but his father, a man of vigorous constitution, is still living, aged seventy-four. When he was seven years old, his parents removed to Port Huron, Michigan. The boy disliked mathematics, but was fond of reading, and, before he was twelve years old, had read the "Penny Cyclopædia," Hume's "England," and Gibbon's "Rome." He early took to the railroad, and became a newsboy on the Grand Trunk line, running into Detroit. Here he had access to a library, which he undertook to read through; but, after skimming over many hundred miscellaneous books, he adopted the plan of select reading on subjects of interest to him...