The Night Watch, But Not Really
Rembrandt's masterpiece "Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq” is best known by an inaccurate title
Today you see me having a bit of fun with the 1642 painting “Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq,” a.k.a. “The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch” by Rembrandt van Rijn. Most people know this masterwork under its popular title “The Night Watch.” In actuality, the painting is set during the day, depicting the company ready to deploy. However, as the painting aged, the layers of varnish darkened, leading to a mistaken impression that the painting shows a night watch, hence the popular, if inaccurate, moniker
In 1639 or thereabouts, Rembrandt was approached by a group of civic militiamen responsible for the protection of Amsterdam to paint their company led by Captain Banninck Cocq. For this commission, sixteen members pitched in 100 guilders each. While militia group portraits were not uncommon at the time, Rembrandt was already recognized as an artistic master and his efforts commanded a premium; 1600 guilders was a considerable sum. The painting depicts 23 characters in total, with the donors and the captain given subject prominence. At least one of the subjects, the girl bathed in light, is a fictional character. She represents the company’s mascot, as symbolized by the chicken and klover (a type of pistol) she wears on her belt and drinking vessel that she carries. While the duties of protecting the city were important, militia groups were also known by their fraternal atmospheres where alcoholic beverages might be enjoyed on occasion.
The large canvas (12 x 14.5 feet) currently resides at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum which is using new technology in exciting ways to further the appreciation of the almost 500-year old painting. A high-definition version is available through the museum’s website, found here. It is the largest and most detailed composite photo ever taken of a work of art, measuring an impressive 717 gigapixels (that’s 717,000,000,000 pixels, for those that want to count the zeros) with a total file size of 5.6 terabytes. The density of pixels is such that one pixel is smaller than a red blood cell (of a human, that is), and allows for close zooming in on any segment of the canvas, even from online.
Considered one of the greatest paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, indeed one of the most famous ever painted of any era, the composition turned the idea of a group portrait on its proverbial head. Not unlike most modern group photos (you know, like that one you took with your after-work softball team or city council assemblage or chess club), traditional painted compositions had their subjects lined in rows facing the painter, and by extension the viewer. Rembrandt envisioned the group portrait as an action scene, with movement and activity enlivening the canvas. Rembrandt’s mastery of perspective gives the painting a three-dimensional feel, with some of the subjects almost reaching out from the canvas or retreating into its depths. The composition is given further dramatic treatment and depth with the use of tenebrism, a strong contrast between light and shadow.
It took Rembrandt about three years to complete his ambitious painting. Commissioned as one of seven works to hang in the banquet hall of the newly built Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeers' Meeting Hall) in Amsterdam, it was moved in 1715 to Amsterdam’s Town Hall. In order to fit the space, strips were cut from all four sides of the canvass. Those cut-off strips have been lost to time, but art historians know that the canvass was at one point larger thanks to a reproduction painted by 17th century Dutch painter Gerrit Lunden, completed about 12 years after Rembrandt’s original. In 2021, Rijksmuseum unveiled reproduction replacement strips added to the sides of the painting, bringing the dimensions of the piece up to 13 by 15 feet. These new segments were created using artificial intelligence. A computer was trained on style, color, brushwork and technical elements of the Rembrandt canvas, and was then provided with the Lunden piece to act as a template in generation of the replacement strips. The reconstituted work is below. Researchers hope that viewers will now be able to appreciate the augmented work in a new light, in the way that Rembrandt intended it.
Afternoon Edit Update:
Some of you said the text bubbles were too fast. I’ve included a slowed-down version for you:
More info:
I LOVE what you've done to Rembrandt here (a painter who ALWAYS can use more light, of any sort), and it makes me think of a site I've wanted to create that would emulate what I do in my kitchen every time I'm cooking. You see, I have three French educational posters hanging over the counter. I got them at an odd shop in Marseille that sold only shoes and books. On the walls, they had a few of these posters, which I recognized from Ms. Schumacher's French class when I was a kid in North Carolina. I told the owner I'd had those posters in French class in the U.S. when I was litte, and she was amazed and went in the back and brought out a whole box of them. I offered her 10 Euro each for three of them, and now they hang in my kitchen. They just depict simple scenes - a beach, a village square during a wedding, une foire foraine - and I constantly stand there chopping vegetables and inventing word balloons for all the people in them - endless entertainment for an idle, vegetable-cutting mind.
Anyway, I have neither the skills nor the time to set up such a site. BUT, I thought you might want to consider the illustrator of these fine posters, Helen Poirié, as a possible source for future TABS. Just do an image search for her name.
I've been to Amsterdam (twice, why yes I am bragging) and seen this and many more wonderful things. Did you know Amsterdam has more museums per capita than any European capital? There's one maritime museum called Scheepvaartmuseum. And when you say it in Dutch it sounds like sheep fart. My group was making the young woman behind the desk giggle with all our jokes. Yeah we were all mature and stuff. Anyway thanks for the info and the giggle at the gif, Martini.