The Night Watch Murder Plot?
We have everything fun and interesting in this one. A big (and when I say big I mean BIG) painting, a famous artist, a murder plot (?????), and bonus vandalism! This post has it all!
The Night Watch
This is a huge and also hugely famous painting by Rembrandt finished in 1642. It is seriously massive measuring 142.9” × 172.0” (to give you a sense of just how big that is, the people in the painting are almost life-sized) and that is actually one of three main things that make it famous. The other two are the use of light and shadow (a Rembrandt special) and the feeling of movement which wasn’t common in military portraits at the time.
It is also known by these two very succinct and easy to remember names: Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. Nice and simple and minimal. I’m just going to go with The Night Watch.
The painting was commissioned by Captain Banninck Cocq himself, along with 17 members of his militia guards. And, of course, it depicts them (the eponymous company) moving out lead by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, in the red sash, and his lieutenant William van Ruytenburch, in the white sash. Within this painting there is a TON of symbolism, I won’t get into all of it here because we have to move along but I’ll point out a few interesting ones. The woman who is illuminated in the centre left serves almost like a vessel as she is carrying almost all the symbols; the dead chicken feet on her belt represent a defeated opponent and she is holding the militia’s goblet. Additionally, van Ruytenburch is wearing yellow, a colour associated with victory.
Some Bonus Vandalism
Luckily for most of its life this painting was covered in a thicc layer of varnish. You’ll see why this is important soon. In 1911 an unemployed shoemaker attempted to slash the painting using a shoemakers knife to protest the fact that he couldn’t find a job. However, the super thick varnish protected the painting and only the varnish was damaged in this attack, the painting was unharmed.
Vandalism attempt round two was in 1975 when an unemployed school teacher (sensing a trend here) attacked it with a bread knife. That is where the similarities end though because this man was claiming that he did it for the Lord and that he had been ordered to do so. This attack did more damage than the first and he made slashes in the painting up to 30cm long. It was restored and they did an amazing job, 9/10 only because you can still see some of the damage up close.
Round THREE! This happened in 1990 when an escaped psychiatric patient sprayed acid onto the painting from a concealed bottle. Some quick thinking from the guards who quickly stopped him and sprayed water onto the painting. The acid ended up only penetrating the varnish (yay varnish) and no real damage was done.
Don’t know what it is about this piece that causes people to want to destroy it so badly.
Murder??
In 2009 Peter Greenaway, an experimental filmmaker, made a movie called Rembrandt’s J’Accuse all about The Night Watch and how Rembrandt painted in clues to reveal certain things to the viewer, one of which being a murder. He describes it as “a pointed finger that attacks the militia company depicted here for corruption, child prostitution, and murder” (Tuckman, 2009).
Before I get into his thoughts about the painting and the plot etc. just know that Greenaway didn’t conduct any formal research nor did he consult with Rembrandt scholars. Instead he and his team examined the painting inch by inch as well as x-raying it to get a better sense of Rembrandt’s process. You should also know that Bas Dudok van Heel, a historian at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive, dismisses this POV and the film outright calling Greenaway’s research ‘pretend’ and his characters ‘invented’. But it is always fun to walk a little into a conspiracy theory so here we go!
One of the first things he points out is the muskets in the painting. The soldier behind Lieutenant van Ruytenburch is firing his gun in the middle of this crowd. If you look closely you can see the plume of smoke from the gun behind the feather in his hat, he was just barely missed by the bullet (on the left below). Now why would someone be doing that? According to Greenaway this is the thing that should immediately signal to the viewer that something is amiss.
The girl in gold (on the right above), he says, represents a girl from the orphanage/brothel that the members of the militia were said to frequent.
This last part I just have to quote, it’s too much; “And Banning Cocq, positioned at the painting’s center, plainly resembles Satan. Dressed in black and crimson, Banning Cocq stands majestically next to a Christlike sergeant clad in white. The shadow of Banning Cocq’s outstretched hand falls toward his sergeant’s spear. With that provocative gesture, Greenaway argues, the captain takes his company with him into hell” (Tuckman, 2009). I have never heard anything more DRAMATIC in my life.
Anyways, about the murder. According to the movie, which is the only source on this, while Rembrandt is in the process of creating the sketch for the painting the head of the militia is killed in a highly sus shooting. Rembrandt then starts to unravel the plot and realizes that many of the painting’s subjects had a hand in the murder. Because of this he decides to expose them in The Night Watch and he also throws in a few of the other bad things they were said to have done (the child brothels, corruption etc.).
As a result of this painting it is said (by Greenaway) the militia were super mad at Rembrandt for calling them out and this lead to the downfall of the artist.
Now, as I said, take all of this with a healthy pinch of salt. However, it is fun to imagine Rembrandt painting in these subtle clues trying to expose the militia without getting himself killed in the process. Personally, I think this is entertaining but not suuuuper likely. Still a very impressive painting to see in person or even online but if you’re out of work don’t even think about attacking it, security is a little tighter now.
Works Cited
Tuckman, Melissa. “Diagnosis Murder”. ARTnews. 2009. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/diagnosis-murder-228/.