Another volume in Francis Warner's Oxford Theatre Texts, this play traces the friendships Rembrandt had with the great figures of the day in order to explore the interactions of art and life in the Dutch Republic during a period of political turmoil and religious intolerance. Central to this cultural milieu was the Speelhouse, essentially a highly refined brothel, whose patrons included Rembrandt and his own patrons. Such liberated mores conflict directly with the prevalent Dutch Calvinism. It includes numerous color plates of Rembrandt's paintings.