Neil MacGregor , director of the British
Museum, visits Amsterdam to reassess the qualities that make Rembrandt's subjects reach out so directly to us today, 400 years after his birth. The large-scale classical and Biblical scenes in the Rijksmuseum dazzle with their technical brilliance and mastery of paint, while the smaller drawings and etchings convey his intimate observation of the human qualities of tenderness or vulnerability. MacGregor traces the routes some masterpieces took to arrive in British collections. Producer Richard Bannerman