Rembrandt

The Nightwatch

Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691264905
• Print ISBN:
  9780691003412
  9780691039916

A landmark book that casts critical light on one of Rembrandt’s most iconic paintings

In The Nightwatch, Rembrandt turns his portrayal of eighteen prominent Amsterdam citizens as members of a militia company into one of the world’s most fascinating works of art, one that evokes censure as well as praise. The painting, however, was not an eccentric vision but a thoughtful reworking of a longstanding tradition of militia portraiture. In this classic book, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann shows how Rembrandt chose motifs, colors, actions, and setting to emphasize the historic role of the militia in Amsterdam and the social standing of the men portrayed, and how contemporary viewers associated costumes and actions with events of the past and familiar circumstances of the period when the painting was made. Meticulously reconstructing the artist’s intentions and the viewer’s response, Haverkamp-Begemann sheds critical light on the startling young woman in gold and other visual elements of this remarkable work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Note to the Reader
• Introduction
• I The Painting: Commission, Execution, Condition
• II The Men Portrayed: Regents and Merchants
• III The Role Enacted: Historic Honor and Active Service
• IV The Setting: Constraint and Enhancement
• V The Form: Tradition and Innovation
• VI The Subject: Reality, Allusion, Symbolism
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index
• Illustrations