Rembrandt's Window

The current exhibition of Rembrandt's paintings and etchings at the Dulwich Picture Gallery shows off his mastery of light and shadow to great effect, but it was a tiny self-portrait at the very end which caught my attention. One of many in which Rembrandt tried out techniques using the closest model to hand, in this example he leans in to the reflection he's capturing on the etching's copper plate, and a trick of perspective makes it seem that, instead of looking at the picture from the outside, we are somehow on the inside, looking out at the artist looking in, and the whole of the gone C17 world is going about its business beyond the borders of that little window.