Another one of a Rembrandt’s more famous group portraits is Night Watch, commissioned in 1642. This portrait embodies the Baroque style with its drama and animated crowd (Rosenberg 139). Night Watch was commissioned by Captain Banning Cocq and has been hailed as his most famous painting (Wallace 109). It is a masterpiece of the Baroque in both style and massive size. The dimensions of Night Watch are 13 ft. by 16 ft. and within these parameters contains eighteen guardsmen and sixteen other figures, like children, that Rembrandt added. He turned a traditional Dutch portrait into a “dazzling blaze of light, color, and motion, and subordinating the requirements of orthodox portraiture to a far larger, more complex but sill unified whole” (Wallace 109-110). Night Watch is a dramatic moment of the call to arms and Rembrandt greatly depicted this moment of intense chaos (Rosenberg 138). The sound of the drum signifies the call to arms and Rembrandt shows the guardsmen rushing into place and children and dogs running around. Everyone is trying to get into position. Even though this was canvas, he incorporated, through image, the idea of sound and it has been said that the painting is “loud with the sound of the drum and musket, the thud of the ramrods, the barking of dogs, the cries of children” (Wallace 110).
Rembrandt created much movement within this painting on a 2-dimensional canvas. “He has created a tremendous burst of movement of utmost complexity, brushing aside all remnants of the more static order which the Renaissance tradition had continued to impose upon his forerunners” (Rosenberg 139). He placed the two main officers directly in front showing the intensity of their pondering thoughts of where to go. He painted them very realistically. The diagonal of the lieutenant’s pike marks the direction from the right in the rear corner and is thus repeated in parallel diagonals of rifles above and behind (Rosenberg 139). Rembrandt incorporated many opposing directions particularly in the figure of the standard-bearer. These directions help to create a link between the rear group and the group on the left, while the diagonal banner further highlights the advancing stride of the two leaders (Rosenberg 139). The sergeant located on the far right with his arm extended and his halberd pointing over his left shoulder connects surrounding members with the main group (Rosenberg 139). The sergeant on the extreme right serves the same purpose. His halberd it vertically placed which aids in unifying the rear movement. The verticality of the halberds and rifles thus lets the diagonal lines become the dominating accent. Rembrandt, finally, demonstrated rank and order though his composition of movement with the standard-bearer and two sergeants (Rosenberg 139).
The ground plan of the painting has a zig-zag formation which is typical of the Baroque and used to “lean the eye forward and back into the depth of the picture” (Rosenberg 142). The space is set up into four planes and can be most clearly seen by the illuminated little girl to the right of Captain Cocq. The first plane is distinguishable by the glove hanging from the Captain’s right hand (Rosenberg 142). The second plane can be identified by the rifleman’s gun and the foot of a boy running towards the right (Rosenberg 142). The third plane is highlighted by a girl and the fourth by the stand-bearer who is located behind her (Rosenberg 142).
Like we saw in The Anatomy of Dr. Tulp, Rembrandt continued a Carravagesque approach through his use of lighting. There is no apparent light source in the painting. “It is the drama of light and dark which provides the strongest pictorial sensation, and with it the intensity of the colouristic effect in the leading two figures” (Rosenberg 142). Light and color play a dominant role in the figure of the Lieutenant. He is dressed in a bright yellow uniform which is starkly contrasted by Captain Cocq’s black attire and the tonal browns of the background. The little girl to his left wears a softer hue of this yellow. The yellow depicted ties into the rest of the painting with the orangey reds which Rembrandt uses. Captain Cocq dons a rich red scarf which beautifully accents his dark clothing. The surrounding riflemen wear lighter shades of this red. The red is repeated on the drum which is in an even lighter hue and trimmed with gold (Rosenberg 142). The blues and greens are less dominant and painted in places like the lieutenant’s uniform and the drummer’s sleeve (Rosenberg 142). The greenish golds are can be noticed in the uniforms of the guardsmen and armor which accentuates the idea of unity.
In The Anatomy of Dr. Tulp, Rembrandt incorporated the names of all of the men in the painting. It was a status symbol to have your portrait done, but it more economical to participate in a group portrait. In this painting, Rembrandt took out the idea of the individual portraits that he showed in The Anatomy, and instead unified the figures. However, he still painted the two main officers’ names as well as the sixteen other guardsmen’s names on a shield located on the wall above the group, thus creating an official record of his patrons (Rosenberg 138-139).
Images drawn from the Web Gallery of Art
Home|Introduction|The Anatomy of Dr. Tulp|Conclusion