The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, called Night Watch or Ronde de Nuit, is a picture of Rembrandt dating from 1642. It is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and is the highlight of any visit to Amsterdam.
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It represents a company of militia of the Musketeers of Amsterdam , led by Frans Banning Cocq , leaving weapons in a building.
This painting is in New Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and is the most popular work on display there.
This painting is a command supported by eighteen members of a militia company whose names are inscribed on the coat hanging on the cross that bears the characters. Rembrandt received 1600 florins for this painting (the annual salary of a worker at the time being of the order of 250 guilders).
The preparatory work of this painting appears to date from the 1639, for work that lasted nearly four years.
The painting was intended to decorate the great hall on the first floor of the House of musketeers (the headquarters of the militia) in Amsterdam, who, after the work done in 1638, had impressive dimensions (including ceiling height of four meters ).
The building (shown right), whose name in Dutch is Kloveniersdoelen, is one of the historical monuments of the city, situated on the banks of the Amstel , on the street Nieuwe Doelenstraat; is now a hotel.
The original dimensions of the painting was 5 m by 3.87. These were reduced by a breakdown occurred in 1715, making the canvas a work still immense current of 4.38 m by 3.59 m.
That year, the picture is transferred to the town hall (on the Dam) whose walls were too small.
A copy by Gerrit Lundens of the complete painting, done before the division is exposed to the National Gallery in London.
During the occupation of Holland by Napoleon , the canvas was then transferred several times before staying permanently in the Trippenhuis home (family trip) which became an art museum, where it is exhibited until 1885 , when the New Rijksmuseum is open.
The canvas was dismantled and put away in various shelters during the second world war.
Like other famous works, it has suffered various assaults, including a knife (1973) and acid (1985). It is currently the centerpiece, among many other masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum.
The exact title of the work is unknown. But the title "The Night Watch" is a random name dating from the nineteenth century.
This work has been considered as a night scene proved to be a representation of a leaving group in the light of day, it's dirt and the aging of the varnish that gave the illusion of night, which could pass for normal in the work of Rembrandt, familiar scenes very dark.
In addition, the use of bitumen as a binder, as in The Raft of the Medusa , darkens with age.
When restored in 1947, the painting has reappeared as Rembrandt's contemporaries were able to admire it.
The light, colors, and games of table rows (spears, guns, banner) will showcase the two officers under the center and the little girl in yellow dress.
In the center are Frans Banning Cocq, black, reaching out vividly to the viewer, the captain of the company and also mayor of Amsterdam, and Willem van Ruytenburch, his lieutenant, whose partisan seems to threaten to leave the canvas.
These visual effects have been extensively worked by Rembrandt, as shown in the analysis to X-ray conducted by the Dutch conservacy.
Among the eighteen sponsors of the table, only a third is identified with certainty, it is the ensign January Cornelisen Visscher, brandishing the flag of the company.
Behind his left shoulder, the critical tradition claims identify a fourth person, Rembrandt himself, in the face where you do not see one eye.
Always in the foreground, but in a more staggered, one sees a mass of soldiers, more properly called musketeers.
Among this crowd, it was argued, with an emphasis on light, a young girl who, by his dress, illustrates the military symbols of the musketeers as Rembrandt wants to develop.
She holds a dead chicken which is a sign of defeat of the adversary, moreover, chicken claws represent the crest of kloveniers (soldiers wielding Kloves, name designating a musket in Dutch of the sixteenth century.)
The arms show the grades in the militia command baton to the captain, for partisan lieutenant, sergeants for halberds, pikes and muskets for ordinary militia.
In the background you can see a building that is never identified without doubt a building used strong military. Lighting is very limited in order to foreground more important.
The handling of the musket is shown how some military manuals of the period:
On the left, a militiaman powder fills the barrel of his musket, with a dose prepared in advance, in tubes, it is hung around his chest.These doses, in addition to facilitate the determination of the powder and therefore the reliability of the shooting, also often include fluff (fabric, paper) that tamp down the powder charge and bullet that will complete the shipment;
just behind the head of van Ruytenburch, a militiaman or perhaps a child, wearing a helmet adorned with oak leaves, takes a shot at that particular act of divine man in the background between the two officers;
Right, finally, an old sergeant blows on the opening of the firing of the charge (it takes by introducing a lighted, visible on this character in a hole at the bottom of the barrel of the musket.) So the policeman comes to shoot, and blow through the barrel to accelerate its cooling, so that the next powder charge does not ignite spontaneously under the influence of heat.
The main technique here is chiarascuro -- a Rembrandt invention. This process coupled with the asymmetry of the military against each other gives the impression of forward movement. This impression is accentuated by the characters themselves and their movements in all directions.
The chiarascuro light (as shown in Rembrandt's work left) comes from a point above the characters with a slight tendency towards the left. It lights above the center of the table where the most important characters are located.
The colors used are fairly simple, with the exception of some characters with costumes with brighter colors.
The colors, in general, oscillate from black to beige, while incorporating more vivid colors accentuating the most iconic parties.
This differentiates form a more static painting by such contemporaries as Frans Hais. The new technique of chiaroscuro painting was truly revolutionary!
