... is primary" (Chapman, 4). The value of the individual and his own uniqueness is derived from Renaissance Italy and the Reformation, which created a fundamental shift toward a man-centered view. The growth of individualism "marked a radical reordering of society that prompted many to turn inward and closely examine their lives, values and beliefs" (Chapman, 5). This introspection assumed the mode of the autobiography, a new literary form, and the self-portrait. It is through self-portraiture that Rembrandt is able to portray "extreme traits of the emerging and anxious individual, trying to make sense of, or accommodate himself to, a rapidly changing world; and the mature Rembrandt attains an uncommon degree of autonomy" (Chapman, 6). So why did Rembrandt choose to depict himself in over fifty paintings? Early on in his career, as a young man in Leiden, he may have been influenced by the disadvantageous conditions that heightened the artists' ...

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