"This picture may also relate to Rembrandt's private life in the fact that Elizabeth's face seems patterned after that of Rembrandt's mother, who died in 1640 when his wife, Saskia, was about to deliver a child." Rembrandt is a Dutch Baroque artist who ranks as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western Art. No painter has ever equaled his chiaroscuro effects or his bold impasto. In his early years, Rembrandt worked with Pieter Lastman, a painter of biblical, mythological, and historical scenes. The Visitation serves to sum up Rembrandt's style at this transitional point in his development. The leaves and birds on the left are still reminiscent of Lastman. Rembrandt's architecture is pure fantasy; both the exterior and interior views, are structures that were never seen in reality. "The landscape too, has nothing to do with the innovative Dutch realistic landscape of the 17th century. Its function is to suggest the long distance that Mary has traveled to visit her cousin." The figures are arranged parallel to the picture plane, and the vertical and horizontal elements stabilize the composition in the classicizing manner that was to dominate in Rembrandt's work, which was in Dutch painting in general, in the middle of the century. Rembrandt also uses his unique ability to show the inner emotions of the participants in the scene. The use of light is an important resource of expression, which was the mark of his genius throughout his career. " Very few people today read the the Bible, and virtually nobody reads mythology or legend." of course, the masterpieces by Rembrandt, Poussin Pierro della Francesca can be enjoyed on their own physical terms as feast for the eye conjured up by the colour and form alone-but only up to a point. Those great works are about something for which form and colour are only the dynamic means to an even larger end. The paintings often have another compelling dimension.
