Frans Banning Cocq
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Frans Banning Cocq (1600 - 1655?) was a burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam in the mid-17th century. He is best known as the central figure in Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch.
Cocq was the only son of an Amsterdam pharmacist. He studied law in France but returned to Amsterdam and became captain of the militia there. In 1630 he married Maria Overlander, the only surviving child of Volckert Overlander, merchant, ship owner, knight, one of the founders of the Dutch East Trading Company and a few times burgomaster of Amsterdam. When Volckert died, Banning Cocq inherited his properties north of Amsterdam along with the title of Lord of Purmerend and Ilpendam. In 1632 he became commissioner of a college and sometime around 1650 he was named burgomaster of Amsterdam. He died around 1655.
Banning Cocq is known today primarily for a painting commissioned from Rembrandt van Rijn which shows Cocq and the company of civil guards he commanded. Although known as The Night Watch, this is not the original title; at that time it was in fact unusual to title paintings but if indeed it had a name, the more correct one would be "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch". The painting is notable, among other things, for its huge size: approximately 11 ft by 14 ft.
