Night Watch (painting)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
| The Night Watch |
| Rembrandt, 1642 |
| oil on canvas |
| 363 × 437 cm, 142.9 × 172.0 inches |
| Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Night Watch or The Night Watch (Dutch: De Nachtwacht), is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt.
The painting may be more properly titled The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. It is on prominent display in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and is its most famous painting.
Contents |
[edit] Title
The popular title long seemed to appropriately reflect the content, but was based upon a misapprehension due to dulling of the painting's surface; it is, in fact, a daylit scene. The following description appears next to a drawing of "De Nachtwacht" in the family album of Banning Cocq: “De jonge heer van Purmerland als Capitein geeft last aan zijnen Lietenant de heer van Vlaerdingen om sijn compaignie Burgers te doen marcheren” (literally: The young lord Van Purmerland as Captain gives order to his Lieutenant the lord Van Vlaerdingen to march his company Civilians.”).
[edit] Key elements
The painting is renowned for three elements: Its colossal size (363 x 437 cm ~ 11ft 3in x 14ft 4in), the effective use of light and shadow, and the perception of motion in what would have been, traditionally, a static military portrait.
This painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Netherlands' golden age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch. With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd, the two gentlemen in the centre (from whom the painting gets its original title), and the small girl in the centre left background. Behind them the company's colours are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelisen.
The militiamen were also called Arquebusiers after the Arquebus, a sixteenth-century long-barrelled gun.
Rembrandt has displayed the traditional emblem of the Arquebusiers in the painting in a natural way: the girl in yellow dress in the foreground is carrying the main symbols. She is a kind of mascot herself: the claws of a dead chicken on her belt represent the 'Clauweniers'- Arquebusiers; the pistol behind the chicken stands for 'clover'; and, she is holding the militia's goblet. The man in front of her is wearing a helmet with an oak leaf - a traditional motif of the Arquebusiers. The dead chicken is also meant to represent a defeated adversary. The colour yellow is often associated with victory.
[edit] Alterations to original
For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name by which it is now commonly known. This varnish was removed only in the 1940s.
A part of the painting on the left was also cut off during the 18th century, which also removed three characters. A 17th century copy of the painting then by Gerrit Lundens at the National Gallery, London shows how it looked originally.
[edit] Acts of vandalism
The work was attacked with a knife by a mentally disturbed man in 1975, resulting in a large zig-zag of slashes. It was successfully restored but some evidence of the damage is still observable in person.
In 1990, a man out of his senses sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. Security guards intervened and water was quickly sprayed onto the canvas. Luckily, the acid had only penetrated the varnish layer of the painting and the painting was fully restored.
[edit] Painting's commission
It is said to be commissioned by the Captain and 17 members of his civic militia guards Kloveniers, and although 18 names appear on a shield in the centre right background, the drummer was hired, and so was allowed in the painting for free. A total of 34 characters appear in the painting. Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders for the painting (each person paid one hundred), a lot of money then. This was one of a series of seven similar paintings of the militiamen commissoned during that time under various artists.
The painting was commissioned to be hung in the banquet hall of the newly built Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeers' Meeting Hall) in Amsterdam. Some have suggested that the occasion for Rembrandt's commission and the series of other commissions given to other artists was the visit of the then French Queen Marie de'Medici in 1638. Even though she was escaping at the time from her exile from France by her son, Louis XIII, her arrival was met with great pageantry.
[edit] Location
It was first hung in the Arquebusier's hall the Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam in the 'Groote Zaal', Great Hall. This is now known as the Doelen Hotel. In 1715 it was moved to the Amsterdam town hall, for which it was altered. When Napoleon occupied the Netherlands, the town hall became the Palace on the Dam. The magistrates moved the painting to the Trippenhuis of the family Trip. Napoleon ordered it back, but after the occupation the painting was moved to the Trippenhuis again, which had now become the Rijksmuseum, and was moved to the new Rijksmuseum building when it was finished in 1885. Its last major movement was during the Second World War, when it was kept in a secure bunker under the hills of Limburg for over five years, detached from its frame and rolled around a cylinder. It was restored to the Rijksmuseum after the war.
[edit] Trivia
-
The Night Watch in 3D at the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam is a bronze-cast representation of the famous painting.
The sculptures of the Night Watch in 3D at the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam
- "Nightwatch" is the official name given the United States Air Force Boeing E-4B command and control aircraft. A modified Boeing 747, the "Nightwatch" is designed to give the President an airborne base of operations in the event of a national crisis or nuclear conflict. The aircraft was named after the Rembrandt painting by the first commanding officer of the 1ACCS (Airborne Command and Control Squadron).
- The front cover of Terry Pratchett's novel Night Watch is an homage to, or parody of, this painting, illustrated by Paul Kidby. A print of the painting itself appears on the reverse of the hardback edition.
- The work has inspired musical works in both the classical and rock traditions, including the second movement of Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony, the lyrics of King Crimson's The Night Watch by Richard Palmer-James, and Ayreon's The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Cocq from Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer.
[edit] External links
- The Night Watch at the WebMuseum
- Night Watch At the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Rembrandt and the Night Watch
