REMBRANDT VAN RIJN : “The night watch” - 1641-42 - oil on canvas, 359 - 438 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

“The night watch" is one of the most important paintings of the whole history of Art, and with no doubt one of the most complex. The in depth analysis of this sensational scene is a job that has occupied hundreds of students during centuries, a study that have identified almost the totality of the 28 personages (30 before an unfortunate cut, in addition to three children and a dog), among them the Captain Purmerlandt and his lieutenant von Vlaerdingen; rescued copies of the original before its mutilation, and tried to explain the almost indescribable effects of movement that make of this painting the culmination of the Art by Rembrandt.

How this effect of dynamism can be explained? Rembrandt has represented the exact moment when the captain of the company has order the advance, but this order seems to have not arrived yet to his subordinates. This tension between movement and statism gives the picture an irresistible magnetism. One almost hopes that, if we watched the painting during a couple of minutes, the captain and his lieutenant will begin the advance, their subordinates will follow them after a few hesitations, and the drum of the right will begin a fast redoubling accompanied by the barks of the small dog.

And there is more, much more. The brilliant effects of the chiaroscuro, with an almost mystical light that excessively emphasizes the figure of the girl who carries a chicken and the almost hidden architecture of the foreground of the painting. The way in which the lances and standards close the scene in the upper side (which would be much more appreciable if the painting was not cut). The fast and spontaneous way in which the faces are painted. All in all, an essential work for the history of the western painting.