Rembrandt's well turned-out and nude Women.

Rembrandt rendered life well, sometimes more unflinchingly than many sitters would have liked. His depiction of materials and accessories is also particularly beautiful. His women were women of the time and adhered to contemporaneous ideas of beauty; they had fleshy legs, large stomachs, narrow, rounded shouldered and small breasts. It is hard to equate this idea of beauty with our own. And, yet, when it is beauties that he is depicting, large stomachs or not, it is difficult to see them as anything other than lovely.

I've been researching the man recently and have been accosted by images of his women. I thought I'd change things up a bit and give a glimpse at fashion in painting and of the past rather than on models and of the now. And also look at another standard of beauty compared to the one we're familiar with.

PS He was pretty generous with the accessories.

Saskia

Saskia

Hendrickje Stoffels

Bathsheba