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Rembrandt's 1642 group portrait of an Amsterdam civic militia company is known as The Night Watch, but it shows the company setting out in daylight, not a patrol at night. The nickname came much later; before 20th-century cleaning, dirt and darkened varnish made the picture look far gloomier, which helped it stick.

Rembrandt van Rijn

Art

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The painting's official title identifies the militia company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, far less catchy than the nickname that stuck. It is also not its original size: in 1715, when the canvas was moved to Amsterdam's town hall, strips were cut from all four edges, mostly the left, so it would fit between two doors. In 2021 the Rijksmuseum used artificial intelligence to reconstruct the missing strips digitally, based on a smaller seventeenth-century copy by Gerrit Lundens that had recorded the full original composition. The painting has also survived repeated attacks: it was slashed with a knife in 1911 and again in 1975, and sprayed with acid in 1990, though conservators saved it each time.

Türkçe oku
Rembrandt'ın 1642'de yaptığı ve Gece Devriyesi diye bilinen grup portresi bir gece sahnesi değildir: Amsterdam'ın gönüllü şehir muhafızlarından bir bölüğü gün ışığında yola çıkarken gösterir. Ad tabloya çok sonra takıldı; 20. yüzyıldaki temizliklere kadar kir ve kararmış vernik tabloyu olduğundan çok daha karanlık gösteriyordu.

Tablonun resmî adında Yüzbaşı Frans Banning Cocq ile Teğmen Willem van Ruytenburch'un bölüğü anılır; bu uzun ad, sonradan yerleşen lakap kadar akılda kalmadı. Tablo bugün özgün boyutunda da değil: 1715'te Amsterdam Belediye Binası'na taşınırken iki kapının arasına sığsın diye tuvalin dört kenarından, en çok da sol yanından şeritler kesildi. Rijksmuseum 2021'de, bütün kompozisyonu gösteren ve Gerrit Lundens'in 17. yüzyılda yaptığı küçük bir kopyadan yararlanarak kayıp şeritleri yapay zekâ yardımıyla dijital olarak yeniden oluşturdu. Tablo birkaç saldırı da atlattı: 1911'de ve 1975'te bıçakla kesildi, 1990'da üzerine asit püskürtüldü; restoratörler her seferinde onarmayı başardı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The Night Watch
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