Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is regarded as one of the world's greatest artists, he was a painter, draughtsman and printmaker of the 'golden age' of Dutch art. He studied painting under Jacob van Swanenburgh and Pieter Lastman, the renowned painter of historical paintings. He was a well-known painter of Amsterdam's wealthiest families and often painted his wife Saskia and numerous self-portraits. Rembrandt was fascinated by the problems of chiaroscuro; his dramatic 'illumination' of painted scenes has gone down in the history of painting. He has been described as a "painter of the soul", the characters depicted in his works are often characterised by an in-depth psychologism.