Drawn to the Light

This lovely book pairs full-color reproductions of some of Rembrandt's most powerful religious paintings with finely crafted poems reflecting on them, prompting readers in turn to ponder the spiritual themes behind the Dutch master's famous artworks.

"Drawn to the Light" offers a fresh way of viewing this selection of Rembrandt's familiar masterpieces as well as the religious characters and events that inspired them. The book features eighteen of Rembrandt's paintings, each accompanied by an original poem that mines the religious and artistic expressions of the painting.

In addition to their stirring beauty, Rembrandt's artworks perceptively capture the poignancy and power of otherwise familiar stories from the Bible. Whether his subject was Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Moses' destruction of the tablets, David's reconciliation with Absalom, or Jesus' encounters with the woman at the well and with the disciples at Emmaus, Rembrandt strove to render a particular moment of decision, confrontation, or awakening.

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, a gifted poet and art viewer, further enhances this facet of Rembrandt's work by focusing on its interpretive, evocative, and devotional dimensions. Some of her poems take readers imaginatively into what might have been the painter's process of reflection. Others turn our attention toward the actual moment Rembrandt was striving to represent, asking what it must have been like for those who experienced encounters with the divine and what their legacy might mean for us today.