Rembrandt exhibit

Trying to tell a real Rembrandt from a fake

when everything is dark and the figures stare hauntingly

from their 17th century lives

when clothes were heavier

and women fell between the cracks of history

it makes you wonder how to know Rembrandt as a whole--

so irresistibly imitable, sought after for 3 decades,

then falling out of style when a brighter pallet was preferred.

So many of his loved ones died,

and he himself buried in a rented grave.

Swimming in the dark sea of paintings,

it's easy to claim your own version of Rembrandt--

to decide which paintings speak the most and seem most "real".

but it begs the question--with such a legacy

are the workshop imitations not just part

of a continuing Rembrandt conversation--

and what is our own part in this, 400 years later

standing in jeans and headphones,

gazing into those bottomless eyes?