The air smells of mineral soil, sweat, and piss. The street, which he can see only through the tiny window, is glistening from last night’s downpour. There’s a whinny and the sound of clacking steel on cobblestones. Horse’s hooves tromp in the puddles somewhere nearby. His other senses are already registering the day. There is the promise of solace through one of those doors, and a bed to lie on, something tells him. What he remembers is no more than an assemblage of symbols-a dog, a wall made of doors, an old woman with a pail full of sand-but fear is pounding through him insistently, demanding he return to sleep to see out the dream. Shivering because winter gnaws through his meager leather jerkin, sweating because of the nightmare out of which he’s just awakened.
He is shivering and sweating at the same time. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Īt the first toll of the Westerkerk bell Adriaen Adriaenszoon bolts awake in a dank stone jail inside Amsterdam’s town hall. These changes will remain mysteries for centuries until a young art historian closely examines the painting in the twenty-first century, and makes surprising discoveries about the painter, his process, and his genius for capturing enduring truths about human nature in a single moment. Told from several points of view, ranging from a curio dealer who collects bodies for the city’s chief anatomist to philosopher Rene Descartes, the novel opens on the morning of the medical dissection that is to be recorded by the twenty-six-year-old artist from Leiden who has yet to attach his famous signature to a painting.Īs the story builds to its dramatic and inevitable conclusion, the events that transpire throughout the day sway Rembrandt to make fundamental changes to his initial composition. Set in one day in 1632, The Anatomy Lesson is a stunning portrayal of Golden Age Amsterdam and a brilliantly imagined back-story to Rembrandt's first great work of art.
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