Rembrandt is often celebrated for his sense of light, intimacy of detail, and depth of humanity. Few think of him as the “director” of his work. And yet, according to Leonore van Sloten, a curator at the Rembrandt House, one of his gifts was the way he “put himself inside the skin of his characters, full of emotion.” The artist found inspiration in the acting he saw at the theater, an increasingly popular activity in 17th–century Netherlands. To deepen our understanding of Rembrandt’s methods and inspirations, “Directed By: Rembrandt” displays theater records from Amsterdam’s city archives as well as masterpieces from other museums. One painting in the show is Susanna (1636), in which the biblical character shrinks from two men who are peeping as she prepares to bathe. Her discomfort is palpable, her fright active. The convincing nature of her body language and facial expression makes it difficult to remember that Rembrandt’s scene is two-dimensional and stationary. —Jeanne Malle