(b ?Amsterdam, c.1583; bur. Amsterdam, 4 Apr. 1633). Dutch painter, highly esteemed in his day but now remembered mainly as the most notable of Rembrandt's teachers. Most of his career was spent in Amsterdam, but in about 1603–7 he was in Italy, where Caravaggio and Elsheimer made a strong impact on his style. He specialized in small-scale religious, historical, and mythological scenes and often chose unusual subjects that showed off his learning (The Roman Women and Children Beseeching Coriolanus not to Attack Rome, 1625, Trinity College, Dublin). The glossy colours, the animated gestures and facial expressions, and the dramatic lighting of Rembrandt's early works all owe much to Lastman, and his Balaam and the Ass (1626, Mus. Cognacq-Jay, Paris), for example, is clearly based on a prototype by his master (1622, priv.