Artistic canons are naturally constructed rather than socially constructed entities. They are not born overnight by revolutionary methods and are frequently subjected to criticisms by exponents of postmodernism, post-structuralism, multiculturalism and feminism. The artist de-personifies in his work a part of himself and it is this high craft of de-personification that separates Rembrandt from other Old Masters. Rembrandt’s life and art converged to create mythic resonance for generations of French art critics. The ideas presented in nineteenth-century texts on Dutch art evolved in part from the precedent of eighteenth century writings by Jean-Baptiste Descamps and Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Lebrun, who published the first significant French studies devoted solely to Flemish and Dutch art. Lebrun in particular identified Dutch art as a democratic rather than aristocratic pursuit as early as 1795 when he addressed a popular revolutionary society. His characterization of Dutch art as dem

Senator Kamala Devi Harris is a formidable centrist candidate for Vice President of the US. As a prosecutor and state Attorney General, she built up a solid record on law enforcement, with a moderate commitment to judicial and police reform (far more evident in recent months than during her years in law enforcement). On healthcare, she is a centrist much in Joe Biden's mold. In fact, Biden probably picked her because she was so much like him in her politics ("simpatico" was his first criterion!). Like George HW Bush and Joe Biden, she has been picked because her presidential run exposed her to the whole country and demonstrated she was ready for the presidency even though she failed to win. Unlike Biden (who never led the polls in either of his previous runs for president, in 1988 and 2008), Kamala Harris was the Democratic front-runner for more than a month last year after her strong performance in the first two Democratic presidential debates. Her Jamaican father (from