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PHOENIX — It'll take your breath away.

There, the very first thing you see as you walk into the Phoenix Art Museum's "Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art" exhibit, is that portrait.

It's Rembrandt's famous 1661 oil on canvas, "Self-Portrait as the Apostle Paul" (pictured above).

It's so familiar, so old, and yet so fresh. And pictures don't do it justice.

The face is a touch swollen, the look quizzical. The eyes, a little tired and very wise, have seen much. A sort of divine light splashes across the forehead.

The intensity of thought and emotion spills off the canvas. It's impossible to walk away from this work without having a sense of Paul's depth and devotion. Or of Rembrandt's.

This exhibition (it's a joint project among the Phoenix museum, the Dayton Art Institute and the Portland Art Museum) features 90 works of art from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum — 14 of those by Rembrandt.

As luck would have it, the Rijksmuseum announced five years ago that it would be closing several of its galleries through 2008 for renovations. This was a cue to Jim Ballinger, Phoenix Art Museum's director, to swoop in and negotiate the loan of artworks. After all, the Rijksmuseum houses one of the world's most impressive collections of 17th-century Dutch art — and that's saying a lot. He was successful: This is the first full-scale exhibition from the Rijksmuseum ever seen in this country.

That's a big deal, said Ballinger.

"The Rijksmuseum is one of the world's great national museums," Ballinger said in a phone interview last week.

"They've worked for 150 years on building a great, great collection. For them to share textbook examples of these artists' works — it's kind of staggering for us, especially in Arizona, where we have young museums and collections. We rarely have the opportunity to see an exhibition of this depth."

The show is a dizzying array of masterpieces, arranged by subject — cityscapes, countrysides, religious images, still lifes and so on. Most sections include objects and etchings along with the oils.

That arrangement, said Ballinger, puts the art in context of the times and the place in which it was created.

"To give an overview of what the country was like, and what Amsterdam was like — the kinds of objects people were surrounded by — adds another layer to the exhibition," he said. "It weaves in an understanding of the Dutch people and their environment."

Seduction is immediate as you go through the first section, "The Artists and Their World."

It's not just that it contains Rembrandt's self-portrait, the stunner that greets you.

It includes a self-portrait by Jan Steen that puts the painter, who also was an innkeeper, brewer and storyteller with a keen sense of humor, in the role of a well-established, distinguished artist. He has given himself a furrowed brow and a look of a man trying to be serious, but you sense that any moment he'll burst out laughing.

And then there's Gerard Dou's "Man Smoking a Pipe" (formerly called "Self-Portrait"). The 1650 oil shows a man casually leaning out a window, looking directly out at the viewer. Beside him hangs a green curtain — the kind that would be closed over a painting to protect it, which was often done in the 17th century. The simple curtain makes this a painting within a painting. Dou, a student of Rembrandt's, was exquisitely detail-oriented.

The whole show is full of such wonders:

Nicolaes Berchem's lyrical "Italian Landscape" seems to capture the light of Italy's countryside. Hendrick ter Brugghen's graphic "Doubting Thomas" has Thomas sticking a finger in the bloody sword wound of the risen Christ. Watching closely is a man peering through pince-nez as Thomas' finger slips in. There's a sense of curiosity and a bit of skepticism about the characters, rather than awe.

Hendrick Martensz Sorgh's "The Vegetable Market" shimmers with light and a sense of spring. A woman, decked out in a straw hat and a red bodice and surrounded by baskets of spring bounty, looks right at you, offering a fruit.

Then there are the etchings by Rembrandt that show his genius in scrumptious detail, and the stunning silver works, and the etched glassware.

Art piece after art piece reveals the details of the life and people that filled that artistically remarkable century.

This show is so packed with such astounding beauty, such rich, telling detail, that a stroll through this exhibit is a bit like a time machine back to 17th-century Holland.

And an experience thrilling enough to take your breath away.