Today the art world remembers Rembrandt, estimating him as the symbol of the Dutch Golden Age and one of the most important painters of European culture, among all his impressive works Round night it can be considered the pinnacle of his career.
Round night
The Night Watch (English: Night Watch, Dutch: De Nachtwacht) is the title by which one of the most famous works by the Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is known, but derives from a misunderstanding due to the degradation of the surface of the frame. In fact, a scene was originally painted in daylight, as cleaning done in 1946-47 revealed. It was the oxidation of the paints that caused the nocturnal impression, with a very dark patina.
The painting is famous for three elements: its large size (363 x 437 cm, made up of three large horizontal elements, assembled by the artist), the effective use of light and shadow, and the perception of movement in what would traditionally be it was a static portrait of a military group. Rembrandt represented the exact moment in which the captain of the company gives the order to his men, still scattered, to be framed for the march. This transitional tension between stillness and movement gives the image a particular vigour.
Then there are the brilliant chiaroscuro effects, with an almost mystical light that greatly emphasizes the figure of the girl in yellow, the almost hidden architecture, the way in which the spears and banners close the scene at the top (much more appreciable if the painting had not been cut), the quick and spontaneous way in which the faces are painted: in short, a fundamental work for the history of Western painting.
Rembrandt
The son of a Leiden miller, he dedicated himself to painting in the workshops of Jacob van Swanenburgh and later Pieter Lastman. As a freelance painter in 1625, he moved to Amsterdam in 1631 and immediately achieved great success, modifying the inspiration in Caravaggio's early work for violent light effects, in a personal style, in which the search for the emotions was combined with an enveloping and mysteriously evocative chiaroscuro.
Commercial success came to Rembrandt after his marriage to Saskia van Eilenbürch, the daughter of Mayor Leeuwarden. This union opened the doors of the artist to the mansions of the wealthy bourgeois. And Saskia's cousin was a Rembrandt art dealer, bringing her noble clients.
For more than a decade, Rembrandt had important commissions that allowed him to amass a large art collection. The night watch, which ended in 1642, the year of the death of his wife Saskia, is a turning point in the painter's life, which saw the end of a period of joy. After the disappearance of his wife and his three children, after a few years, he begins his downward path. He had a tumultuous relationship with Geertje Dircx with whom he fell out and got her convicted, then replaced her with 22-year-old housekeeper Hendrickje Stoffels.
Rembrandt did not marry Hendrickje due to a clause in Saskia's will, but this situation led to public humiliation for the young woman: when she became pregnant in 1654 she was called before a council of the Dutch Reformed Church and censured for having "lived with Rembrandt". like a prostitute." Around 1656, the painter was forced to sell his entire precious collection. Increasingly poor and forgotten, he lived the last years of his life in solitude, never abandoning painting and still producing numerous masterpieces.
He died on October 4, 1669, at the age of 63. Four days later he was buried in Amsterdam's Westerkerk. In the 2004 elections for "De grootste Nederlander" (The Greatest Dutchman of All Time) Rembrandt finished ninth. 2006, on the occasion of the painter's 400th birthday, was declared the "Year of Rembrandt." Among the various initiatives, a successful musical was also produced, produced by Henk van der Weyden.
The commission
The painting was commissioned by the scabin (officer assigned to ensure good order in the city) Frans Banning Cocq, a doctor, who also commanded a company of arquebusiers, the Kloveniers. Wealthy and ambitious, thanks to an advantageous marriage he had acquired money, property and titles, in a promotion that had seen him become Burgomaster (in 1650). He asked Rembrandt to portray him along with fifteen of his officers, to highlight his martial aspect. The payment was one thousand six hundred guilders: each of the sixteen portraits contributed one hundred guilders.
Commissioned in December 1640 and committed to until mid-1642, the work is part of a cycle of six large canvases, commissioned from various artists (two of his former students, Backer and Flinck, the worldly portraitist Bartholomeus van der Heist , and the German Joachim von Sandrart ), on the occasion of the arrival in Amsterdam of Maria de Medici (1639), to commemorate in the Kloveniersdoelen (the general headquarters of the city militia in the Nieuwe Doelenstraat) the status of Civic Guard, of which the majority belonged to the notables of the city.
Another interpretation has also been attributed to the painting: the allegory of the triumph of Amsterdam, inspired by a drama by contemporary Dutch writer Joost van den Vondel. Given Rembrandt's realist approach and historical references, it is reasonable to assume instead that he falls within the established Dutch tradition of portraying civic guard companies.
Location
The painting was exhibited in the great hall of the Arquebusiers, the Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam, where the Hotel Doelen now stands. In 1715 it was moved to the court martial chamber of the Amsterdam town hall, placed in a space between two doors through which the ends were cut off to reduce its size.
When Napoleon occupied the Netherlands, the town hall became the Dam Palace and the magistrates transferred it to the Trip family Trippenhuis, which later became the Rijksmuseum. In 1885 it was moved to the new museum headquarters from where it was only moved during World War II, when it was kept in a bunker under the Limburg hills for more than five years, separated from its frame and rolled around a cylinder.
mutilation and vandalism
From the copy by Gerrit Lundens, preserved in the National Gallery in London, we have confirmation that, in 1715, the painting was mutilated, on the left side, from which a vertical strip of approximately one meter from the base was removed (for what which the figure of the halberdier, which is now aligned with the image, was originally in the center of a group of figures of which today only the ones on the right remain), and on the right side, where a strip of about 30 cm.
In 1687 the painting was repainted, in 1697 it was cleaned by rubbing it with boiling oil. In 1715 it was cleared (before the side cuts). Further cleanings were carried out in 1751 and 1758. In 1851 his paintings were regenerated with alcohol, treatment repeated in 1936 with the result that the surface became opaque. In 1947 it was resurfaced and cleaned by HH. Mertens, chief restorer of the Rijksmuseum with the help of CH Jenner.
Alexander Elliott, art critic in his 1959 book, View and Insight, criticized this cleanliness: "Rembrandt seems to have suffered the most, his famous The Night Watch in Amsterdam is now a day watch." This is one more contribution to the controversy between those, like Elliott, who are against these cleanings and those who argue that they are necessary and useful to restore the canvases to their original state. Proponents of this view explain that the painting was originally titled "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq."
Also a painter, Jan van Dijk, who cleaned the picture in 1751, wrote that it had been so plastered with boiled oils and varnishes "... that it was no longer possible to unearth some details until after the paint had been removed..." which was hiding the brilliance of sunlight on the image and recommends a bold intervention to liberate the image.
Horst Gerson in his book "The Paintings of Rembrandt" (1968), the title "The Night Watch" has only been used in the early 1723th century since the French renamed it "la Patrouille de Nuit" and after the English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1792-XNUMX) would have defined it this way, because at the time the painting was so dark and weather-beaten that it was almost indistinguishable and looked like a night scene.
Rembrandt, perhaps more than any other artist, suffered the outrage of the "restorers." What had been contemptuously called "Rembrandt's brown" was the result of his interventions, not the artist's brush. These interventions also gave the impression that he was a monotonous colorist who always worked with a limited range of colors. However, it is true that the vigorous use of chiaroscuro, with the emphasis on the mysterious evocative qualities of shadows, has always annoyed some critics.
There is an understandable, if not a good, reason why Rembrandt's works were covered in paint. As he matured he became more and more free in his technique, with vigorous brush strokes, light color passages, heavy blends applied with the palette knife and finished areas with the fingers.
This highly personal style was mysterious to many critics in the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries, who attributed it to laxity or even perversion. Rembrandt himself seems to have indirectly suggested that his work should be viewed from a small distance, so that the space allows his lines and colors to merge.
According to Houbraken: "Visitors to his studio, who wanted to see his works up close, were turned away by the painter who said, 'The smell of the colors will bother you.' It is very likely that Rembrandt was not at all worried about the smell of fresh colors, even pleasant to many people, but not willing to answer silly questions about his unusual style.
Some theorists of Rembrandt's day agreed that his paintings, with their rough and rugged style, were best appreciated when viewed from a distance, but also noted that a similar effect could be achieved with a layer of paint covering the texture of the surface. the original brushstrokes. As a result, for more than a century after Rembrandt's death, many of Rembrandt's works were applied with applications of paint, often colored, by gallery owners and worse, some collectors.
In theory, The Night Watch should not have been a candidate for such treatment. Although it contains some extraordinarily rich and complex areas, Rembrandt still did not fully utilize the style of later years. However, he got his heavy dose of gold glitter and paint. In fairness to these interventions, it must be said that his intention was to protect the paintings from dirt, and restorers have also rendered a great service to the art world.
In 1911, when The Night Watch was still covered in a thick layer of hardened paint, an unemployed ship's cook attempted to scrape it off with a knife. He had no reason for this act of apparent insanity other than the fact that the paint was famous and he is not.
But its surface layer of paint proved to be as tough as glass, and the blade was unable to penetrate and dent the canvas. This masterpiece is the one that has suffered the most attacks, in fact it has been the object of two other healing attempts: in 1975, also with a knife, by a mentally disturbed person who produced thirteen vertical cuts, some 80 cm long. It has been successfully restored, but some traces of the damage can still be seen.
In 1985, a man poured acid on the painting, from a hidden bottle. Security intervened, immediately spraying water on the tarp. Fortunately, the acid had only penetrated the surface layer and the paint was completely restored. Now the painting is kept in a bulletproof glass box.
Style
Rembrandt's painting is corpulent, he often uses the palette knife and fingers, obtaining a material effect, almost bulky, original in the context of Baroque and Nordic painting. In Rembrandt the brushwork becomes increasingly free and vibrant; it almost seems that, with the passing of the years, following the spiritual evolution and the greater mastery of matter, its impetus, rather than diminishing, is increasing.
In the definition of the lights, the artist starts from a very strong accentuation of the luminous points, defining himself decisively, then with subtle passages of enamels he harmonizes the lights with the rest of the painting. His painting is still heavily influenced by the art of Caravaggio, as like the Italian Rembrandt he gets amazing realistic effects from diagonal light and dark. Furthermore, in his portraits, lights and shadows are expressive tools, of psychological insight, extraordinary revealers of people's psychology.
The night watch expresses the idea of movement with the progressive passage from a situation of happy and momentary confusion to the military order of the group. The lieutenant has just received the order, some soldiers have noticed and are starting to get ready, the drum on the right beats the order to march, but the formation is not deployed yet.
The two commanders, recognizable by the parade uniforms and by the signs of authority (the baton and the sword), head towards the center, while behind them the soldiers crowd the place waving their spears, raising flags, holding arquebuses. displayed not heraldically but actively. In fact, three arquebusiers carry out operations with the weapon: one is loading it, another simulates the shot, a third blows the powder.
On the left side, two children carry chickens and pheasants on their waists, symbolizing their role as sutlers with the precious drinking horn, emblem of the guild. They all wear uniforms recognizable as those from the time of the anti-Spanish revolt, which demonstrates the meticulousness with which the artist knew how to capture even the details.
The vitality and dramatic effects of the composition are achieved thanks to the exceptional use of light, soft and intense, which pours from the left underlining the faces and figures, caressing the clothes and uniforms, helmets and swords, in a crackle of sparkles. sudden, of parts in shadow that alternate with abysses of absolute darkness.
On the canvas the figures are not isolated from each other, although strongly characterized, they are not isolated, but are placed in an internal dialogue accentuated also by the presence of external and narrative elements, such as the children's figures and the barking dog; the compositional rhythm is based on two bright colors that emerge from the shadows, yellow and red.
Very different from the other works of the same type, La Ronda de Noche is extremely innovative, due to the orchestration of the different groups in movement and the richness of the luminous plot with which it manages to express a common situation. With an effective use of light (sun) and shadow, Rembrandt directs the viewer's gaze towards the three most important characters in the crowd, the two officers in the center and the girl in the background on the left.
Behind them, the sign bearer, Jan Visscher Cornelissen, shows the company colors. Rembrandt created an ambitious masterpiece of great baroque complexity, in which realism and symbolism masterfully merged and, thanks to a skilful play of chiaroscuro, harmonized with wisdom, movement, light and color.
Characters
The characters were represented according to their hierarchical order of importance. In total there are 22 (plus the three in the cut part). Their names were inscribed in the coat of arms at the top of the painting (better visible in the lightened version of the painting). The central figure is Captain Frans Banning Cocq, to the left of him his lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, the standard bearer is Jan Cornelisz Visscher, Sergeant Rombout Kemp, Sergeant Reijer Engelen. In the background we can see a character that has been identified in Rembrandt himself.
Three children can be seen in the painting: a girl dressed in yellow with a bird hanging from her belt, a boy running to the left corner, with a horn, another that can be glimpsed as he runs to the right.
Rembrandt in The Night Watch has inserted the traditional emblem of the Arquebusiers: the girl in the yellow dress in the foreground bears the main symbols: the claws of a dead chicken on her belt represent the Clauweniers Arquebusiers, the pistol half-hidden behind the chicken is the acronym for clover; in addition, she holds the chalice of militia.
The character on his left wears a helmet with oak leaves, a traditional motif of the Arquebusiers. The dead chicken also represents a defeated opponent. Yellow is often associated with victory. Other interpretations are the allusion to the name of the captain or the allusion to a company shooting practice. However, it may also be that the girl's figure performs only a color balancing function.
Setting
The portico at the bottom of the painting has a symbolic reference: that of the defensive and protective work of the city carried out by the militia company. With a more detailed reading, you can also be inspired by a triumphal arch similar to those erected to receive illustrious personalities of the city, such as the one built on the occasion of the arrival of Maria de' Medici in 1638.
Movement
The sensation of movement that characterizes the entire Night Watch is obtained through some gestures intentionally distributed at different points in the scene: the waving of the flag, the running of the two children in opposite directions, the drumming, the dog running to the right, the two officers advancing towards the center, the charging movement of the arquebus.
Banning Cocq's hand and Van Ruytenburch's halberd seem to literally come out of the picture. This type of effect is extremely difficult to paint. Rembrandt, however, brilliantly overcame this obstacle. The captain's hand is almost tangible. On the other hand, Rembrandt had more problems with the halberd, as can be seen from the X-rays in the painting (detail on the left). Initially it was too big and had to be fixed a number of times. Rembrandt used to paint directly on the canvas without preparatory drawings.
Illuminated faces with intense expressions express different moods: joy, arrogance, surprise, astonishment, fatigue, concentration, curiosity. Of some of these characters (structure of the figure and expression of the faces) there are also preparatory drawings that demonstrate the care with which the artist followed this work.
Luces y sombras
The powerful contrast of light and shadow enhances the sense of movement, but the use of light must be considered essentially from an aesthetic point of view and not a logical one. One critic's phrase is significant: "his own sun god." In fact, Rembrandt manipulated light: the shadow of the captain's hand on the lieutenant's jacket might suggest that the sun is at an apparent angle of about 45 degrees to the left, but the shadow of the captain's outstretched leg indicates an angle different.
The Night Watch, of course, was painted on the inside, and although the particular lighting of each detail may be natural, it is not natural for the composition as a whole. The artist adjusted and manipulated the light by opening or closing the shutters in his studio to suit his own purpose, which was to create a very dramatic and dreamy atmosphere.
“Rembrandt Lighting” is a photographic technique that takes its name from the Dutch painter who portrayed his subjects as if they were illuminated by a skylight placed above the subject. It is placed on the side of the face that is not facing the camera. The psychological effect it creates is very romantic but at the same time emotionally charged.
The great French critic Charles Blanc (1813-1872) said: “To tell the truth, this is only a dream at night and no one can decide what is the light that falls on the groups of figures. It is neither the light of the sun or the moon, nor does it come from torches, but from the light of Rembrandt's genius."
Review
Contrary to what has been alleged, apart from complaints from some of the customers, La Ronda de Noche was not badly received. No critic during Rembrandt's lifetime wrote a single word to blame him. Captain Banning Cocq himself wanted a watercolour, for his personal album, which reproduced the painting. A contemporary oil copy by Lundens Gerrit, now on display at the National Gallery, London, offers further evidence of the painting's popularity. .
The painting has always been displayed in prominent places, paid for as agreed, and four years later the Prince of Orange paid 2.400 guilders for two smaller works. Rembrandt in 1642 was at the height of his popularity and subsequently slowly fell out of favor with the public, though not to the extent that romantic biographers suggest.
What were the reasons for its "decline"? One, of course, was the change in the artistic tastes of the Dutch. After 1640, wealthy citizens, having increased their tranquility and security, developed a predilection for ostentation and elegance.
They began to prefer the bright colors and graceful shapes that had been introduced by fashionable painters, such as the Flemish portrait painter Anthony Van Dyck, who, though a fine artist, lacked Rembrandt's depth. Rembrandt's use of chiaroscuro therefore no longer satisfied their needs, so they turned away from an artist who seemed "dark" and, perhaps worse, asked them to spend at least one thought on what they were looking at. looking.
Innovation
The typical Dutch group portrait of the XNUMXth century was generally in charge of satisfying the needs of the guilds, militias and institutions that decorated their headquarters with this type of painting. These works were generally static, with numerous characters (usually in a row or in a semi-circle) contributing to the cost of the painting.
Rembrandt went beyond this conventional scheme and perhaps for this reason he was not appreciated by the public and by clients who did not like the poses, which were not very martial. The Night Watch was criticized for an excess of originality, more of a client complained of not having been sufficiently valued, despite having paid regularly, appearing foreshortened or partially hidden.
They also protested the inclusion in the image of intruders (who had not paid anything), who took the stage seriously, such as the drummer, who with his presence alluded to the festive ceremonies, and the girl, with the rooster attached to her waist . But with his realistic interpretation, Rembrandt had transformed the traditional group portrait into an action-packed scene, illustrating the role of each.
Rembrandt's view
In a September 2004 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Margaret S. Livingstone, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, suggests that Rembrandt, whose eyes appear to have had a misalignment of the vision, he suffered from loss of stereopsis, a condition in which it is difficult or impossible to perceive depth correctly. »
Livingstone came to this conclusion after studying 36 self-portraits by the artist. Since he did not have normal binocular vision, his brain automatically chose to use only one eye for observation. This particular handicap may have caused him to perceive many of the images he saw as flat, which helped him transfer them to two-dimensional canvases.
According to Livingstone, this may have been to the advantage of a great painter like him because art teachers often tell students to adjust their eyes to perceive what they see as flat. Therefore, the loss of stereopsis may not be a problem or disadvantage, but rather an advantage, for some artists. However, this theory has some aspects that can be criticized because one of Rembrandt's greatest qualities is the ability to reproduce the illusion of volume, the perception of which requires normal vision.
The Online Restoration
Extensive investigations into the painting were launched on July 8, 2019. Under the name of Operation Nightwatch, the image is first digitally photographed in high resolution and recorded using X-ray fluorescence analysis and spectroscopy.
To do this, the painting was framed and a display case was built around its exhibition area, in which examinations can be carried out during the museum's operation and followed by guests. In addition, the work will be filmed and the restorers will periodically document its status live online. Then the restoration of the painting is planned.
Operation Nightwatch is a challenging public restoration and will take place in a specially constructed seven square meter glass chamber. There will be twelve experts who will work to restore one of the most spectacular and well-known paintings in the world to its former glory. And viewers from all over the world will be able to follow the progress of the work, which will be broadcast live.
In order to make the online viewing of The Night Watch as real as possible, 528 photos of the painting were taken. Later it was possible to compose the pieces as small puzzle pieces in 24 rows of 22 images. The images were stitched together by spacing each pixel by 20 micrometers, which means each pixel is 0.02mm thick, a surprising level of detail considering the actual size of the frame.
The final result has more than forty-four billion pixels, accessible to virtual visitors and academics. The goal of the project is not only to preserve The Night Watch for future generations, but to provide new information on the creation of the work, on reflections and corrections, as well as on Rembrandt's peculiar technique and on the materials used, always a mystery. fascinating to art historians.
Here are some links of interest: