Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

Amazon.com

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming is a spiritual adventure story. A chance encounter with a poster depicting a detail of Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son set in motion a chain of events that enabled Nouwen to redefine and claim his vocation late in his life. In this book, which interweaves elements of art history, memoir, Midrash, and self-help, Nouwen brings the parable to life with empathic analyses of each character. Nouwen's absorption in the story (and the painting) is so complete that the father's challenge to love the son, and the son's challenge to receive that love, become Nouwen's own. And Nouwen's writing is so clear and his tone is so appealingly frank and humble that readers--no matter how far from home--will find hope for themselves in the prodigal peace Nouwen ultimately achieves. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

The beloved spiritual writer meditates on the parable of the prodigal son's return -- a powerful drama of fatherhood, filial duty, rivalry, and anger between brothers -- and its enduring lessons for Christianity.

Full-color photographs with gatefold.

Customer Reviews:

Return of the Prodigal Son: A story of Homecoming.......2007-10-01

I read 3 Nouwen books at the same time. This was excellent and gave me a very new understanding of this story in the bible. This and the other two books I read (Reaching Out and Can You Drink the Cup) were excellent spiritual reading.

A book you cannot forget.......2007-09-27

This is by far the best book for a troubled soul. It surrounds the reader with hope and warmth and kindness. When all is bleak, this is the book that will give the reader confidence in life.

Return of the Prodigal Son.......2007-09-05

This book was such an inspiration to me that I gave my copy away for someone else to read and now need more to give away!

Nouwen at his best.......2007-08-31

This is a masterpiece! Nouwen looks at the prodigal son through the perspectives of the prodigal, the older brother and the father. It allows us to identify with each of the characters at different points in our lives. Rembrandt's imagery of the father is very moving. It gives a beautiful perspective of the desire, mercifulness, and love that our Lord has for us sinners. I highly reccomend this book. It is one of the best books on spirituality I have read.

Excellent book.......2007-08-31

Herni Nouwen does a great job on decribing the parable of the prodigal son. A great book to read for someone who has had a friend or family member who has gone astray.

Average customer rating:

A core addition
The Story of the Artists Life and Work
A book worthy of the artist!

The Rembrandt Book
Gary Schwartz
Manufacturer: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810943174

Book Description

With international attention focused on the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt von Rijn's birth, the world's leading Rembrandt expert weighs in with a penetrating—and accessible—examination of the Dutch master's life and art from both the biographical and the art historical perspective.

Rembrandt was an esteemed artist in his own time as well as in the present, yet there is much debate over how many paintings and drawings can really be attributed to him, and popular scholastic opinion varies widely. In his lively text, accompanied by 700 full-color illustrations, Gary Schwartz addresses the central controversies, providing art historians, students, and art lovers with essential new insights to help clarify the mysteries surrounding the great painter.

Customer Reviews:

A core addition .......2007-04-10

Compiled and written by one of the world's leading experts on the life and work of Rembrandt von Rijn as part of the 400th anniversary of his birth, "The Rembrandt Book" is a 384-page compendium of biography and history of the Dutch master's life and art. Beautifully and visually enhanced with 700 full-color illustrations, "The Rembrandt Book" also provides interested readers with an introduction and analysis of all the various controversies and debates over Rembrandt in terms of just how many paintings and drawings can be accurately and definitively attributed to him. A core addition to personal, community, art school, and academic library Art History reference collections, "The Rembrandt Book" is most especially recommended to the attention of art historians, art students, art enthusiasts, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the colorful life and personal mysteries involving one of Europe's most famous and influential painters.

The Story of the Artists Life and Work.......2007-04-06

Rembrandt is probably the most famous artist of all time. And this book, celebrating the 400 years since his birth is at once a tribute to the man and his life, and his work.

A great deal of information is available about Rembrandt. There are some five hundred documents covering various aspects of his life. But there are still many conflicts. We are not sure just when he was born, docoments say 1605, 1606 and 1607. We are not sure how many paintings he produced - of the 400 or so usually attributed to him, at least 150 are in doubt. Likewise the number of etchings - about 285 -- and drawings maybe half of the 1575 suspected.

In this book the author presents the story of his life, as can be best determined intermixed with the story of his art. The author is considered to be one of the leading Rembrandt experts and the views presented here are well reasoned and as close to being definite as possible.

A book worthy of the artist!.......2006-12-14

This is a very beutifully produced book. There are a profusion of images through out with a very broad representation of paintings, etchings and drawings. The text is excellent as Schwartz has a lot of information but never loses the flow. This is not the best book in regards to image size as many of the paintings are reproduced smaller that I would have wanted but really that is o.k. as that is not really the scope of this book and there are plenty of other books that focus on the images alone. I would have paid twice the price as this is well worth it.

Average customer rating:

Rembrandt is the great master
Brilliant
Absolutely Essential
De Wetering : You should pay the dinner !
Disecting the past.

Rembrandt: The Painter at Work
Ernst van de Wetering
Manufacturer: Amsterdam University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9053562397

Book Description

Rembrandts paintings have been admired throughout centuries because of their artistic freedom. But Rembrandt was also a craftsman whose painting technique was rooted the tradition. Rembrandt--The Painter at Work is the result of a lifelong search for Rembrandts working methods, his intellectual approach to the art of painting and the way in which his studio functioned. Ernst van de Wetering demonstrates how this knowledge can be used to tackle questions about authenticity and other art-historical issues. Approximately 350 illustrations, half of which are reproduced in colour, make this book into a monumental tribute to one of the worlds most important painters.

"The book is--if one may be allowed to say such a thing about a serious scholarly work--a gripping good-read.'
Christopher White, The Burlington Magazine

"This is a very rich book, a deeply felt analysis of an artist whom the author knows better than almost any other living scholar."
Christopher Brown, Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews:

Rembrandt is the great master.......2007-06-07

This book explain a little about Rembrandt technique and some details in his paints. You can understand how could he painted so beutiful arts. But you won't be Rembrandt reading this book. Only the technique is not sufficient to be a master!
But, if you are a Rembrandt fan, you have to read this book!

Brilliant.......2007-05-12

This book is generous with loads of quality pictures of the masters work and an equal amount of text for the reader of history and the technical , a good buy certainly worth the money , I really enjoyed this and I suggest it to any one with even just a passing interest in Rembrandt and an insight into how he produced his work , they actually found some of his dna in his paintings (i bet that makes you curious). This and the other book " Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama" is another beauty possibly a bit better than this one Schama's book spend the first half talking a about Peter Paul Rubens and the dreams Rembrandt had of being his equal , both are great companions to each other I recommend them together.

Absolutely Essential.......2007-02-09

There isn't much more I can say, which hasn't already been said to reveal the great merits of this book. However I think the sheer quantity of 5 star ratings speaks volumes. This book is essential for any academic or personal study of Rembrandt, especially so for a painter as I am. On top of all the incredible detailed scientific analysis, the text is written very clearly and is even a pleasure to read. Above all, the detail shots of his paint surface, are breath taking and most instructive for any painter. They utilized different levels of magnification to reveal his work from the entirety of the picture down to the microscopic level. This book has revolutionized my studio practice!

Richard T Scott
Joelle-Scott Gallery

De Wetering : You should pay the dinner !.......2007-01-20

This book is not easy to evaluate, at a first sight is a very irregular book, amazing in many passages but extremely boring in many others, a whole chapter dedicated to the canvas support !?, with a great mass of technical information about thread density and weave, I think it is too much, a very important Rembrandt's trick like "glazing and sweeping" (that it is supossed he created this technique) is just overviewed when it is perhaps one of the constituents for the most amazing passages in many of his paintings.
My conclusion is that despite of Rembrandt's Project and a lot of scholars studying his masterpieces is very, but very little what we know. How he commited his works is an enigma like in Vermeer's case, so there are a lot of books about them but very little valuable information

Disecting the past........2007-01-20

Old fashioned detective work and modern technical tools means that soon we'll even know what these great artists had for breakfast on any given day. An excellent piece and more than worth the money.

Average customer rating:

Rembrandt Paintings
Horst Gerson
Manufacturer: Harrison House Publishers New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Average customer rating:

Excellent book about Rembrandt and his times
Returning to Rembrandt's Eyes: An Appreciation
A MUST READ
Doesn't have a focus and objective....very boring
A masterpiece worthy of Rembrandt's life and works

Rembrandt's Eyes
Simon Schama
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375709819
Release Date: 2001-10-23

Amazon.com

The great 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn left us so many arresting self-portraits, painted at every stage in his eventful life, that his distinctive face and bearing are a familiar part of the 20th-century cultural landscape, a recognizable presence in galleries across Europe and North America. Nonetheless, the artist himself remains an enigma. Rembrandt was a notoriously difficult man and an inveterate risk taker in life and art: his aspirations to a grandiose Amsterdam lifestyle in the heyday of his popularity as a painter of portraits and large-scale historical works bankrupted him, and he died in relative poverty. His personal effects and treasured collection of paintings and natural rarities were sold off and dispersed, leaving the historian with a tantalizingly scant body of fragmentary records around which to build a convincing biography.

In Rembrandt's Eyes, Simon Schama--the leading historical craftsman of our era, with a career-long commitment to Dutch history--succeeds with consummate skill in bringing the heroic painter of such masterpieces as The Night Watch and Portrait of Jan Six vividly to life. Returning to the bustling Dutch world with which he first made his reputation in the bestselling Embarrassment of Riches (1987), Schama re-creates Rembrandt's life and times with all the verve and panache of a historical novelist--while never for an instant losing his scrupulous grip on recorded fact and detail. The telling surviving fragments of archival information about Rembrandt's personal and professional history are skillfully embedded in a rich, dense tapestry of the commercial whirl and political hurly-burly of the 17th-century Low Countries--a divided territory, split between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and the contested powers of the Spanish Hapsburgs and the Dutch Republic--with the tentacles of the tale reaching into the most unexpected shadowy corners of European love and war, aspiration and intrigue.

Rembrandt's Eyes is, in fact, two biographies for the price of one. From the outset, Schama contrasts the life of Rembrandt with that of his older, equally talented countryman Peter Paul Rubens, whose meteoric rise and sustained success as a society painter forms a revealing contrast with Rembrandt's unhappier relationship with fame and fortune. The comparison is a telling one. Where Rubens furnishes the wealthy and powerful with glorious reflections of, and visual foils for, their social and political aspirations and glory, Rembrandt can never resist testing the envelope of taste and stylistic acceptability. His challenge to his clients to embrace the shock of his painterly experiments with technique, texture, and composition ultimately produced his downfall. The Amsterdam town council took down his The Oath-swearing of Claudius Civilis, rolled it up, and returned his masterpiece to him to be cut down in an attempt to sell it to a suitable buyer.

This is a gorgeous book to own, too. Rembrandt's Eyes is printed on heavy, high-gloss paper and lavishly illustrated throughout in full color. The double-page color spreads of the most memorable of Rembrandt's works will take readers' breath away. But above all, this is narrative history at its very best, a page-turner and an adventure story that will make the reader laugh and cry by turns in the time-honored tradition of masterly writing. --Lisa Jardine

Book Description

For Rembrandt as for Shakespeare, all the world was indeed a stage, and he knew in exhaustive detail the tactics of its performance; the strutting and mincing; the wardrobe and the face paint; the full repertoire of gesture and grimace; the flutter of hands and the roll of the eyes; the belly laugh and the half-stifled sob. He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon; to shake a fist or uncover a breast; how to sin and how to atone; how to commit murder and how to commit suicide. No artist had ever been so fascinated by the fashioning of personae, beginning with his own. No painter ever looked with such unsparing intelligence or such bottomless compassion at our entrances and our exits and the whole rowdy show in between.

More than three centuries after his death, Rembrandt remains the most deeply loved of all the great masters of painting, his face so familiar to us from the self-portraits painted at every stage in his life, yet still so mysterious. As with Shakespeare, the facts of his life are hard to come by; the Leiden miller's son who briefly found fame in Amsterdam, whose genius was fitfully recognized by his contemporaries, who fell into bankruptcy and died in poverty. So there is probably no other painter whose life has engendered more legends, nor to whom more unlikely pictures have been attributed (a process now undergoing rigorous reversal). Rembrandt's Eyes, about which Simon Schama has been thinking for more than twenty years, shows that the true biography of Rembrandt is to be discovered in his pictures. Though a succession of superbly incisive descriptions and interpretations of Rembrandt's paintings threaded into his narrative, he allows us to see Rembrandt's life clearly and to think about it afresh.

But this book moves far beyond the bounds of conventional biography or art history. With extraordinary imaginative sympathy, Schama conjures up the world in which Rembrandt moved -- its sounds, smells and tastes as well as its politics; the influences on him of the wars of the Protestant United Provinces against Spain, of the extreme Calvinism of his native Leiden, of the demands of patrons and the ambitions of contemporaries; the importance of his beloved Saskia and, after her death (Rembrandt was later forced to sell her grave, so complete was his ruin), of his mistress Hendrickje Stoffels; and, above all, the profound effect on him of the great master of the immediately preceding generation, the Catholic painter from Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens: "the prince of painters and the painter of princes" with whom Rembrandt was obsessed for the first part of his life, and whose career was the shaping force that drove Rembrandt to test the farthest reaches of his own originality.

Rembrandt's Eyes shows us why Rembrandt is such a thrilling painter, so revolutionary in his art, so penetrating of the hearts of those who have looked for three hundred years at his pictures. Above all, Schama's understanding of Rembrandt's mind and the dynamic of his life allows him to re-create Rembrandt's life on the page. Through a combination of scholarship and literary skill, Schama allows us to actually see that life through Rembrandt's own eyes. In overcoming the paucity of conventional historical evidence, it is the most intelligently true biography of Rembrandt that has ever been written, and the most dazzling achievement to date of the art historian whose work has been hailed as "marvelously rich and eloquent" ... "rare, imaginative" ... "provocative" ... "astoundingly learned with verve, humor, and an unflagging sense of delight" ... that of "a master storyteller ... and a master of history."*

Quotes from the New York Times Book Review, Time, the New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, and Nature, respectively.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book about Rembrandt and his times.......2007-07-12

Being Dutch, I remember as a kid how my teacher was mesmerizing about how wonderful it would be to have a big enough telescope to catch all the emitted light from long ago and to be able to see Rembrandt paint. I did not know why then, but now I do agree. How wonderful it would have been had he only lived 300 years more to light up all the museums in the world!
This book is about, to my opinion, the best painter of mankind, his life and work. It is also a dual biography about Rubens, since he was so important for Rembrandt.
The book works nicely chronological and winds its way through the younger years of Rembrandt til his last years. In the mean time we also learn a lot about not only his life in Leiden and Amsterdam, but also about the history of Holland of the 17th century. It is absolutely great to learn about for instance the Night Watch, for whom it was painted, who the people are on it, why it was so revolutionary and still the most stunning 17th century painting.
I always wanted to know, as far as recorded history allows us, about the background of his paintings; who ordered it, did they and Rembrandt like it themselves? And most of all: analysis of the paintings themselves: what 'effects' are used, and how? This book goes into wide details of this all without getting repetitive or boring.
Rembrandt is unique among all painters in his combination of talent and 'raffinement'. He could do anything: super precise works, impressionistic style where the paint itself was the 3d effect, portraits, group portraits, history paintings, landscapes, the best etches off all time. His touch and well-aimed strokes immediately got to the essence. His works under scrutiny come out even more unsurpassable and amazing. It is true that none of his students ever came close to his talent, and some of them tried for the rest of their life to master just some aspect of his art (for instance the light effects) while Rembrandt moved on to a more 'rough' style, although it was justly called in this book deceivingly easy to imitate, and of course, 'rough' here does not mean carelessly painted.
Basically he is the first (and best) impressionist in the history of painting.
I have been at the Rijksmuseum many times, and it does not matter which work you look at: Jeremia, his mother reading, the Jewish Bride, his hypnotisingly beautiful self portrait at a young age, it just shows that this is a once in a mankind kind of thing. Rembrandt has shown us once and for all what the art of painting can do, how it can lift our lives by trying so dramatically to imitate it. Indeed looking at his work, it almost seems that his paintings are triumphant over reality.
This book is a great read and the many colour pictures of his work are, needless to say, a pleasure to look at.
Only minus is, that Schama to my opinion is a little too modest about Rembrandt's genius.

Returning to Rembrandt's Eyes: An Appreciation.......2006-12-15

One of the pleasures of reading books from your own library is that they are always there for return visits. Reading Hockney's 'Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters' stimulated this reader to probe more deeply into some of the venerated painters. Simon Schama's fine book REMBRANDT'S EYES is like an old friend, an excellent resource book for facts about Netherlands painting, social and political history that so affected the works of the two featured painters Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens, a page-turner novel, and a catalogue of brilliant reproductions of paintings. This book satisfies - even more the second time around!

A hefty book at over 750 pages, there is not a page that Schama does not use his charming style of writing to slowly inform. We learn about the atmosphere into which Rembrandt was born, follow his works from the earliest examples through his entire career, encounter his passion for elegance and his fall into poverty, and understand his envy of the creatively and socially successful Rubens. Not a book of gossip, this, but instead a biography well documented in a fine bibliography (no mean feat for a history of a great man without much written contemporary documentation!) and a survey of illustrations that augment the story as well as any yet written.

For those who hunger for knowledge about a famous painter yet who deign to wade through the usual dry treatise format, welcome to the class with Schama. This is a book that will endure (first printed in 1999 and now available in paperback) because of the stature of the subject AND the stature of the author. Hats off to Simon Schama who so entertainingly and successfully takes us behind Rembrandt's eyes to see his work as few have shown it. Grady Harp, December 06

A MUST READ.......2006-02-17

I think most of the reviews below cover the bases pretty well, the only criticism I can think of is the book might have been better off printed in the full "coffee table art book" size so the reproductions cited in the text would have been larger...but what a fabulous work it is, an utterly fascinating evocation of a time and place. Even if you only have a peripheral interest in the subject, you will be drawn into the sweep of the narrative through Mr Schama's depth of knowledge and skillful intertwining of the personal and the public world of 17th century Holland. I cannot think of another recent book that I have enjoyed so thoroughly.

Doesn't have a focus and objective....very boring.......2004-07-10

When i bought this book, I thought that it would be an amazing and definitive book about one of the most brilliant genius of art.
But i was wrong, this is doesn't have a point, it goes to the biography of Rubens fathers, passing thru history, economy, and anything else you imagine, this is so borring for the people that actually want to know about Rembrandt and his work. So if you are looking for a book abou Rembrand and his work, this IS NOT....

A masterpiece worthy of Rembrandt's life and works.......2002-09-26

Simon Schama's REMBRANDT'S EYES is undoubtedly one of the authoritative works on Rembrandt's life and paintings. Schama vividly depicts the unparalled and tortured genius of Rembrandt, a man who was brilliant in success and even more so during tragedy. To understand Rembrandt's paintings is to understand the man behind each brushstroke: strong-willed, prideful, and uncompromising in his art. Schama conveys the essence of Rembrandt with such force and effectiveness that we cannot help but appreciate Rembrandt's tragic life and artistic genius.

REMBRANDT'S EYES contains beautiful illustrations of all of Rembrandt's major works; the analysis of each is detailed, clear, and interesting. Through the course of the book, you will be fascinated by Rembrandt's self-portraits and the level of understanding with which he painted himself. Perhaps no other artist has given us such a powerful autobiography without the use of a single written word. This deep understanding of the human soul is evident in all of his works. Schama explains Rembrandt's paintings and his techniques in a comprehensive and powerful manner. If you are interested at all in the truly unique and fascinating genius of Rembrandt, REMBRANDT'S EYES is a must.

Customer Reviews:

If you can't see Rembrandt in person, this is the book.......2006-10-10

This box set is the most prized possession on my bookshelf. I could not possibly do the pictures and information in this book justice with words. Some of the most amazing detail photographs of Rembrandt's surfaces that I have ever seen.

The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt: Reproduced in Original Size

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Rembrandt Etchings
Artist and innovator.
Superb publication

The Complete Etchings of Rembrandt: Reproduced in Original Size
Rembrandt , and Gary D.(Editor) Schwartz
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Complete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrecht Durer
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ASIN: 0486281817

Book Description

Over 300 works — portraits, landscapes, biblical scenes, allegorical and mythological pictures and more — reproduced in full size directly from a rare collection of etchings famed for its pristine condition; fresh, clean impressions; rich contrasts; and brilliant printing. With detailed captions, a chronology of Rembrandt's life and etchings, more.

Customer Reviews:

Rembrandt Etchings.......2006-07-28

We first saw this book as a reference source in an art gallery that was selling original Rembrandt etchings. The book provides an explanation of how the etchings were produced and provides photos of all (found) Rembrandt etchings in their original sizes. Since we were not very familiar with Rembrandt's etchings or with the differences in the appearance of originals produced later using the same plates, this book helped provide us with a means to evaluate the ones being sold at the gallery.
The book is also priced well and makes a great coffee table book.

Artist and innovator........2004-10-31

Rembrandt didn't invent etching, but he very nearly reinvented it. He did more with mixed processes, especially drypoint and etching, than anyone before him. He was also among the first to use etching as a drawing medium, giving it a freedom it had never had before.

One distinctive feature of this book is that each print is reproduced full size. That gives the viewer unique insight into each work - was it small enough to fit the hand, or so big it had to be worked on a bench or table? Just how fine was that texture of lines? Even the biggest prints are presented full size, in a set of oversized sheets that come with the book.

Probably hundreds of authors have written about Rembrandt's art, especially his drawing and etchings. I don't have much to add except what I personally have learned from his work. As well as light and dark, Rembrandt modulates a picture in levels of detail. Look at B76, for example, "Christ presented to the people." The central figures have expression and nuance. Outliers, like those towards lower left are barely sketched in. It's a fascinating way for the artist to guide the viewer's attention.

One author (I forget who) was asked to name the finest printmaker of all time. He started by eliminating Rembrandt, on the grounds that this master went so far past any mortal skill that he was outside of merely human history. This book shows just where that claim came from.

//wiredweird

Superb publication.......2000-05-25

Although budget-priced, this edition is a winner, in my opinion. All of Rembrandt's etchings are reproduced on a heavy-stock paper that is of the proper degree of shine necessary to bring out the full, crisp nuances of the etchings. The result are vividly life-like etchings that show all their intricate details. Faces and people come alive, almost jumping out of the page. The Dover people were right in thinking that only a shiny, heavy-stock paper could bring out the full details of the etchings, to create reproductions that are as closely realistic as the original impressions. Also, almost all of the impressions seem of the proper degree of sharpness and darkness necessary to bring out their details. My only problem is that the book is somewhat heavy and bulky, but this is the price to pay for the heavy-stock paper needed for excellent reproductions, each of the same size as the originals. There are also some extra inserts in the book that reproduce in full size several etchings that are too big to fit life-size within the dimensions of the book. The inclusion of these inserts is considerate on the part of the authors, showing their dedication to bringing out the full artistry of the etchings, and ensuring that the common budget book-buyer has full access to these etchings in their most vivid, almost museum-like form.

Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents

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Must Reading for Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Managers
A book on why you should have an IP strategy
Rembrandts and Understanding the New Economy
Patents as a form of token
Patents in the light of the e-commerce revolution

Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents
Kevin G. Rivette , and David Kline
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0875848990

Amazon.com

If you think patents are just about protecting inventions such as the film projector, you're missing the big picture. Now that ideas can be protected--for example, Priceline.com's business model--patents can be wielded to intimidate competitors, uncover their strategies, capture market segments, and, for many companies, generate millions in licensing revenues. Whether patented ideas will ultimately help or hinder innovation is still under debate (see Owning the Future). In Rembrandts in the Attic, however, authors Kevin Rivette and David Kline get down to business, offering practical advice for competing in today's intellectual property arena.

Their advice ranges from the simple to the sublime. First, they suggest, take stock of the patents you already own. Many companies are sitting on unused patents that could be worth millions. For example, IBM licensed its unused patents in 1990, and saw its royalties jump from $30 million a year to more than $1 billion in 1999, providing over one-ninth of its yearly pretax profits. And if you can't find buyers for your unused patents, then look for companies that are infringing upon them--companies that might owe you a piece of their profits. Rivette and Kline offer "patent mining" techniques to spot such potential infringers that can also reveal where your competitors are headed and help you get there before they do. Overall, Rembrandts in the Attic is a crafty and practical guide for companies that may have untapped riches in storage. --Demian McLean

Book Description

From Forbes and Fortune to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, the pundits are calling it the next corporate strategy challenge: How to use patents and other intellectual property not just as legal tools but as weapons of business competition.

With Rembrandts in the Attic, authors Kevin Rivette and David Kline provide the first practical and strategic guide that shows CEOs and other managers how to unlock the enormous financial and competitive power hidden in their patent portfolios. Writing engagingly and citing numerous case studies, the authors warn that firms can no longer ignore the growing power of patents in business competition. The competitive battles once fought for control of markets and raw materials are today increasingly being waged over the exclusive rights to new ideas and innovations. Where once executives may have feared that their competitors might out-market or out-produce them, they must now be concerned that rivals-especially in the booming e-commerce sectors of the Internet-may secure exclusive patent rights to the essential technologies or even to the fundamental business concepts that they need to be in business in the first place.

Rembrandts in the Attic lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding the use of patents in business competition today, showing how some of the world's most successful firms-market leaders such as Intel and Microsoft, Lucent and Gillette, IBM, and Priceline.com-have used patents to capture and defend markets, outflank rivals, boost bottom-line revenues and shareholder return, and enhance the commercial success of their enterprises.

Rembrandts in the Attic is a superb strategy guide that demonstrates the cross-functional value companies can gain by using patents and the gold mine of competitive intelligence that they contain. The book will enable readers to map out technology trends and convergences, uncover the strategies and capabilities of friends and foes alike, and strengthen the competitive efforts of every functional unit in the enterprise, from R&D and marketing to finance, human resources, and mergers and acquisitions.

CEOs will learn how to use the authors' patent-enhanced "Grow-Fix-Sell triage" to help them better allocate corporate resources and build a higher growth portfolio of businesses. R&D managers can employ the authors' "IP-3" strategy to help build category-leading products, amplify the branding and marketing efforts devoted to them, and secure the key "choke points" that sustain their product or service advantage. And business development executives will discover how to use patents as competitive intelligence tools to uncover the most attractive M&A opportunities, strengthen valuation and due diligence efforts, and configure asset sales and transfers to greatest advantage.

If patents are the "smart bombs" of tomorrow's business wars, then Rembrandts in the Attic is the definitive guide to deploying them for profit and competitive advantage.

Customer Reviews:

Must Reading for Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Managers.......2001-09-04

Spellbinding. I laughed. I wept. How could Xerox PARC miss a $500,000,000 patent opportunity in the graphical user interface? Easy, they didn't recognize that someone else might have a use for something they had no use for. Yes, I laughed and I cried.

A book on why you should have an IP strategy.......2001-01-17

This well written book will convince you that an IP strategy is important. If you have some "entry-level" understanding of the strategic concepts related to IP, this book will be of little help. The concepts presented are of interest but they are presented from a superficial perspective. For instance, the concept of IP map is interesting and is accessible from one of the author's consulting firm...

Rembrandts and Understanding the New Economy.......2000-10-27

I would like to put Rembrandts into the context in which it was created. Rembrandts was conceived and co-authored by my friend and business partner of the past 15 years, Kevin Rivette. We co-founded Aurigin Systems,Inc., formerly SmartPatents, Inc., in 1992 to make it easier for people working with patents to do their work. From this beginning Aurigin and, particularly, Rembrandts, have helped transform the way intellectual property(IP) is viewed in the business community. Historically, IP was viewed strictly as a legal right, but Rembrandts shows why, in a knowledge-based economy, IP rights are one of the most fundamental business assets, that often determines the success or failure of an enterprise. Understanding the fundamental importance of IP and why it needs to be strategically managed are the underpinnings of Rembrandts. Using the book as a guide post and Aurigin's innovation asset management solutions, allows companies to: 1) understand the IP rights they own; 2) visualize how those rights fit into the competitive landscape with others' IP; 3) help determine where to place their future R&D efforts; and 4)help decide how to strategically leverage their IP rights to help determine their new business directions, increase return on investment and, ultimately, increase shareholder value. The purpose of Rembrandts was not to set forth a cookbook of how to manage IP. Rather, the book was intended to help CEOs and other business, accounting and legal professionals understand the fundamental function and purpose of IP as a highly protectable and leverageable business asset in today's economy, whether in an old-economy or a new-economy company. I believe the book very successfully achieves that purpose in a highly engaging and easy-to-read style, with many real world examples and interviews.

Rembrandts will stand the test of time and, in hindsight, it will become a business school primer on the strategic business function of IP, as well as identifying IP as one of the critical elements in the shaping of the new global economy. I highly commend Rembrandts to any business executive, entrepreneur, accountant, economist, government official, lawyer, business consultant, business school professor or student of the business world trying to understand and operate in the new knowledge-based, global economy.

Patents as a form of token.......2000-08-16

A fine book written by good story tellers. It described how patents can be used as an asset, or even as a kind of currency, an exchange token, but it lacks depth.

I am interested in Apple's failure to manage its IP. While Xerox was forced to license their photocopy technologies, Apple was doomed because they failed to license their Macintosh user interface to other developers. They have always been a hardware company. They sell underpowered and overpriced plastic cases with miserable circuits. They could have license the look-and-feel to all system builders, and let the Macintosh UI become a _de facto_ standard, but they haven't. While they were making easy money, Microsoft's Windows dominates the market, few people ever know how fun it could be to use a well-designed interface. Nobody follows Macintosh interface today.

And now they have to abandon their original look-and-feel to be more Windows-like (from OS 8). And finally they have to migrate to a mixture of Windows and NeXT when OS X finally ships in the future (hopefully). It is absolutely a bad move not to let others share your IP, but this book did not talk about it.

As IP becomes more valuable, many may improperly follow other people's advise to closely guard their IP. As suggested in this book, IP can worth a lot. A dead company can make huge profit from selling their patents. However, if badly managed, your IP can be your worst burden.

This book really worths the money. But if it's worthy of your time, that's up to you to judge.

Patents in the light of the e-commerce revolution.......2000-06-17

A patent gives its owner the right to prevent anyone else from using the invention that is protected by the patent. In a society where new technology plays an increasingly important role, the individual or corporation may find that owning a few patents, or better yet a large portfolio of patents, may be the key to success. This is independant of whether the patent holder practices the technology of the patent.

The authors discuss patents in the light of the e-commerce revolution. They suggest the use of patents in a strategic manner. They provide illustrations and examples of successful patent strategies. Although much of what they say may be known to those who are in the race to establish business method patent portfolios, even those who think that they know what patents are all about can learn something from this book.

Rembrandt by Himself (National Gallery London Publications)
Average customer rating:

The autobiography as a series of masterpieces

The Master

Wonderful book on the self portraits of the master.

Rembrandt by Himself (National Gallery London Publications)

Manufacturer: National Gallery London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) may not have been a handsome man, but he was an exceptional painter of himself. This sumptuous catalog, published to coincide with the exhibition of his self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, has glossy reproductions of all the paintings and etchings from the show, plus copies of works that are long lost and some not released by the galleries or private collectors who own them. The images are all thoroughly annotated to elucidate their history, and the scholarship is impressive, being mostly drawn from the Rembrandt Research Project, which for years has been working with a combination of x-ray technology and patient research to ascertain the age of the pictures and confirm the identity of their painter. This is not easy work: Rembrandt had many pupils, and he encouraged them to copy his own self-portraits as practice, leading to the unusual situation of a host of Rembrandt self-portraits not actually painted by the master himself. The findings of the project have been contentious, with paintings unexpectedly relegated or elevated through reappraisal. What shines through, though, is the sheer diversity of Rembrandt's genius: the early paintings and etchings in which he turns to a mirror to study expression; the periods of dressing up variously as an Oriental potentate, a soldier, an artisan, and St. Paul; and the famous trilogy of self-portraits painted in his final year that seem to show a man old beyond his years. The catalog also contains a selection of works by his pupils Gerrit Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten and essays by Rembrandt scholars that seek to revise the somewhat romantic conceit that the series is some sort of spiritual autobiography. Rembrandt by Himself, an intelligent and resourceful accompaniment to the exhibition, will continue to transport the reader long after the portraits in the exhibition have returned to their respective homes. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Scrutinizing his own features time and time again, Rembrandt left an extensive pictorial autobiography-his surviving self-portraits include 45 oil paintings, scores of drawings, and over 30 etchings. This absorbing book explores how Rembrandt`s self-portraits developed over his life span, why the genre was so important in his work, and how his innovative style influenced his contemporaries.

Customer Reviews:

The autobiography as a series of masterpieces.......2005-01-10

Rembrandt tells his own story as a series of self- portraits. He traces his life from early youth to sad old age. He presents himself posing as if he understands the self can be a social construct. He creates great masterpieces including the Frick self- portrait where he sits as master and ruler , king of the world of art. He in telling his story looks deeply into his soul and traces a single life as no other painter before or since has. Even his great countryman Van Gogh cannot in his hair and soul raising self- portraits touch the depth and broad humanity of the Rembrandt self - portrait and soul .This is human art at its highest, and most inspiring. Who reads this book reads a great painter and great soul, one of mankind's greatest gifts to itself.

The Master.......2000-04-03

It's about time that I found a (good) book on this subject. Rembrandts self-portraits (I feel) are of his most important work. The quality of the prints are wonderful...unlike 90% of the art related books floating around. The color reproduction is more accurate than most. This is a must have for any fan of Rembrandt...or for any true lover of painting.

Wonderful book on the self portraits of the master........1999-11-23

This book is facinating. It includes three good and fairly dry essays on the topic of Rembrandt's self portraits. More interesting are the prints of all the works that are considered his self portraits, and the detailed commentary on these works. The prints are very good and quite useful for the lover of Rembrandt.

Average customer rating:

Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings
Gary D. Schwartz
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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