Velasquez made two journeys into Italy; he knew what men had accomplished in painting, and if he was not largely influenced by Titian and Tintoretto, their work showed him what man had done, what man could do, and indicated to him his own dormant powers.
Rembrandt was sufficient unto himself.

There are moods when one is sure that he stands at the head of the painting hierarchy.

In spite of his greatness, we feel that he is very near to our comprehension.

What a picture of the old painter towards the end of his life that saying of Baldinucci presents.

We are told that near the close of his career, absorbed in his art, indifferent to the world, "when he was painting at his easel he had come to wipe his brushes on the hinder portions of his dress." Rembrandt looms out like some amorphous boulder, stationary, lichen-stained, gathering time unto itself.