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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 9
Lesson 4: Dutch Republic- Model of the Dutch East India Company ship "Valkenisse"
- The Dutch art market in the 17th century
- Why make a self portrait?
- A Dutch doll house
- Van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck
- Frederiks Andries, Covered coconut cup
- Osias Beert, Still Life with Various Vessels on a Table
- Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus
- Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
- Hals, Singing Boy with Flute
- Hals, Malle Babbe
- Frans Hals, The Women Regents
- Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco
- Rembrandt, The Artist in His Studio
- Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
- Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
- Rembrandt, The Night Watch
- Rembrandt, The Night Watch
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Saskia
- Rembrandt, Girl at a Window
- Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
- Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
- Rembrandt, Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses.
- Rembrandt, Bathsheba at her Bath
- Rembrandt, Abraham Francen
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Two Circles
- Rembrandt, The Jewish Bride
- Rembrandt, Christ Preaching (Hundred Guilder Print)
- Is it a genuine Rembrandt?
- Judith Leyster, The Proposition
- Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait
- Early Dutch Torah Finials
- Michaelina Wautier, The Five Senses
- Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer
- Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord
- Vermeer, The Glass of Wine
- Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
- Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance
- Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance
- Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Johannes Vermeer, The Art of Painting
- Jan Steen, Feast of St. Nicholas
- Ruisdael, View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
- Jacob van Ruisdael, The Jewish Cemetery
- Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia and Dutch colonialism
- Frans Post, Landscape with Ruins in Olinda
- Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects
- Ruysch, Flower Still-Life
- Van Huysum, Vase with Flowers
- Conserving van Walscapelle's Flowers in a Glass Vase
- The Great Atlas, Dutch edition
- The Town Hall of Amsterdam
- Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods)
- 17th century Delftware
- Baroque art in Holland
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Rembrandt, The Night Watch
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch (Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq), 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Speakers: Dr Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
. Created by Steven Zucker and Beth Harris.Want to join the conversation?
- Has anyone seen the video of the flashmob version of "The Night Watch?" It happened in a Dutch shopping center in the spring of 2013, to promote the reopening of The Rijksmuseum, after an extensive renovation. The video can be found on Youtube by searching "flashmob" and "Rembrandt." It's pretty cool.(14 votes)
- Thank you, that was fun! Not something I'd been expecting to have in an Art History course(5 votes)
- At, Dr. Zucker discusses the chicken claws, and an image of a bird on a chain under a claw or talon is shown. Could the chicken in the painting on the girl's belt also be a reference to the captain/commander's name Frans Banninck Cocq, which is similar to the English word "cock" as in a male chicken? In French, it's "coq", but in Dutch it's "haan" and in German it's "Hahn". Hmmmm, the name of the militia is Arquebusiers, from Dutch "haak" for "hook" for hook gun, and the Dutch words "haak" (hook) and "haan" (cock) are similar too! Are cock/coq/Cocq being connected by Rembrandt to Arquebusier/haak (similar to) haan/cock/coq/Cocq ? 3:42(10 votes)
- I believe you are right about the bilingual pun. It sounds plausible that the girl's chicken is a reference to Cocq's name as well as the weapon of the company and their coat of arms. In Holland at the time, French was an important language. http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_low001199601_01/_low001199601_01_0023.php And the Arquebus does seem to be named after its cock, or cocking mechanism which is called haan (male chicken or adult male bird of the Gallus gallus) and similar things in many Germanic languages,(3 votes)
- Amazing contrasts between light and dark. How did Rembrandt achieve such great contrasts? What method did he use?(3 votes)
- caravaggio, tenebroso, and distinctly baroque emotionalism.(1 vote)
- They mention "the girls" in the painting but I've heard otherwise that it was a portrait of his wife Saskia. Anyone know?(2 votes)
- I looked here, and it wasn't mentioned http://mentalfloss.com/article/64381/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-rembrandts-night-watch Given the trivia that DID get into the blurb, I'd imagine if the rumor you heard had any foundation, it'd be there, too.(1 vote)
- can someone identify the people standing in the background?(2 votes)
- AtDr Harris mentions that the painting is "illegible" because of how the parts of the top and left side of the painting were cut when it was moved from the militia hall. I'm curious to know what exactly she means by this. Is it a question of compositional balance? Or do the missing parts contribute to a different interpretation somehow? 5:00(1 vote)
- value of an original size oil painted copy of The Night Watch purchased at the Rijksmuseum(1 vote)
- The Sun is completely blocked in a solar eclipse because the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. Even though the Moon is much smaller than the Sun, because it is just the right distance away from Earth, the Moon can fully blocks the Sun's light from Earth's perspective(1 vote)
- Who is the girl in the white dress?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(piano music) - [Voiceover] We're in the Rijksmuseum on an early Sunday
morning in order to avoid the crowds that gather in front of Rembrandt's most famous work, in fact, probably the most famous painting in the Netherlands. This is Rembrandt's The Night Watch. - [Voiceover] It's a group portrait, and this is a type of painting that was very specific
to the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. - [Voiceover] This is a painting of one of the militia groups of Amsterdam. Now militia groups were
meant to defend the city, but by the time Rembrandt paints this, they were largely ceremonial. - [Voiceover] Right, they
took part in processions, and parades, and festivities relating to the city, and they
symbolized civic pride. - [Voiceover] In fact, one had to pay dues in order to be a member, and it was always a leading citizen that would head it up. - [Voiceover] Right,
we're looking at a group of elite citizens of Amsterdam. We should say it was hung with other group portraits of militias in the hall where they would meet. - [Voiceover] And I think this probably really stood out. - [Voiceover] Well look
at how it stands out in this gallery. - [Voiceover] Unlike earlier examples, which generally have a kind of even light and are very much like the kind of class portrait you would
have in your grade school, here we have people who seem to be in the act of coalescing around an action. - [Voiceover] Right, the captain is giving an order for the militia to gather and move forward, and
he's giving that order to his lieutenant. There is a sense in which
the portrait function has been played down. - [Voiceover] Rembrandt
has decided to impose a kind of hierarchy on the figures. In other words, in most group portraits there would be even light and there would be even
attention to each face, and generally even
handling of each figure. Now there may be figures that are placed in the foreground, figures that are placed in the background, in fact, there might be different prices that each of those sitters paid for that honor, but here the two men in the foreground are clearly most important. - [Voiceover] Well they're flooded with a beautiful Baroque
light that's so dramatic. In fact, the captain's
hand casts a stark shadow on the amazingly beautiful uniform worn by his lieutenant. So those fluctuations of light and dark do make this very different from a typical group portrait. - [Voiceover] This is a Baroque painting, not only in the handling of light, but also in the sense of the momentary, in the kind of compositional diagonals that are defined by the
spears that are held, by the banner in the upper left, activating the scene. - [Voiceover] Well Hals is also bringing a sense of informality and movement to the genre of the group portrait, but Rembrandt is engrossing
us in a narrative. - [Voiceover] Well for example, we see three moments in
the use of a long gun. On the left, you see a man
who's loading his firearm. This is a precursor to the musket, actually to the rifle. In the center, you see somebody whose legs are bracing and is in
the process of shooting, and you can just make out the smoke from the barrel that gets
a little bit confused with the rather smoky feathers of the lieutenant's hat. Then on the right side, you have somebody blowing out the used powder from his pan. - [Voiceover] Art historians believe that these images are in some part derived from a manual about using this kind of firearm. This was very much a source of pride for this militia group. This was their weapon, they practiced it in a field nearby, and they're shown using it. But there's so much else going on. There's a dog barking, there's someone playing the drums, there's someone raising the standard of the militia. There's that girl striding forward who's puzzled art historians for a while. - [Voiceover] Actually,
if you look closely you can make out that there are two girls, one behind the other, but the one that's most evident we think
of as a kind of mascot. If you look closely,
in her beautiful dress she's got a dead chicken that's been hung upside down from her belt, the claws very prominent. That refers to the name of this particular militia group. - [Voiceover] So here we are in this room filled with group portraits, and I have to admit
that when I look around at the Frans Hals, they're
beautifully painted, incredibly informal and lifelike, but I find myself caring less. I don't know the people in the portrait. I can sort of put myself back and imagine the citizens of Amsterdam
in the early 17th century who did know these figures, but somehow I find myself caring about the story and getting involved in the story of The Night Watch. - [Voiceover] We can
look at the Frans Hals and admire his brush work, the innovations of his composition, the way in which he takes great risks in terms of this tradition
of the group portrait, but Rembrandt transcends that category of painting and makes this something where we care about the figures, even if we've lost their identity. - [Voiceover] With the
Hals, they're not filled with as much movement. - [Voiceover] Rembrandt
is bringing in the lessons of Caravaggio, he's
bringing in the lessons of the Italian Baroque,
but we have to remember that we're seeing this
painting differently than somebody in Rembrandt's era would have seen it. For one thing, the painting was cut down when it was taken out of the militia hall. So we're seeing it not
only having lost its top and its sides, but actually
somewhat off center. - [Voiceover] It would have been much more readable. There are two figures from the left that are missing. The very top of that arch and some architectural
space above are missing. - [Voiceover] And the banner, for example, did not reach the top of the painting. - [Voiceover] It's a
little illegible, I think, to us for these reasons. - [Voiceover] And it's also important to remember that the painting wasn't originally called The Night Watch. It was much more specific and referred to the militia that it's representing. - [Voiceover] And the
captain who leads it. - [Voiceover] It got that
title in the 18th century after the painting had
darkened considerably and it was no longer evident that it was a daytime image. - [Voiceover] Although it is still dark, the figures do come out of that darkness in the tradition derived from Caravaggio. - [Voiceover] It still comes out of that Tenebristic tradition
of the Italian Baroque and all of the mystery and drama that that imparts. There was another addition
to the painting as well. If you look carefully,
you see a large shield. That was actually added after most of these men had passed away in order to remember who these men were. - [Voiceover] When you
look toward this painting as you enter this gallery and you see the people standing in front, the painting is so lifelike that it almost looks as though the figures here are interacting with the people who are standing in front of it. - [Voiceover] Well look at the amazing foreshortening, for example, of the weapon that the lieutenant is holding, the way in which that
moves into our space. - [Voiceover] Or the
rifle held by the figure in red, or the captain's
hand that comes forward. There's foreshortening
everywhere as we move our eye across the canvas. - [Voiceover] But it really has to do with the separateness of each person's involvement in what they are doing and the way in which they're all being called to order, that
moment of transition. This is a painting that allows us to see that complex moment when people are moving from their individual thoughts into a formation. The gallery is already filling up. We'd better stop. (piano music)