The AVROTROS program team The Secret of the Master will find out how Rembrandt van Rijn The Night Watch has made. It does this by painting the work in its entirety and in full size. That job started this week with the very first preparations in the Rijksmuseum, opposite the real work itself.
Much new information is available because the world-famous painting is being restored and researched with the latest techniques. “This research is the reason to step into Rembrandt’s skin and imitate his painting techniques and reconstruct materials,” says AVROTROS.
The special expert team tries to do everything like Rembrandt as much as possible, to get as close as possible to his technique and style.
“It is of course an idiotic plan, but it is also very interesting to reconstruct a painting that is so large and that is so well and excitingly put together in terms of representation,” says researcher and artist Lisa Wiersma. “Seeing how such an iconic work could have come about is, of course, something you would never have been able to experience otherwise, and never will again.”
The Night Watch has been treated and restored at least 25 times. During the Second World War, the militia piece lay rolled up underground for five years.
The company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburgh prepares to march out, like The Night Watch actually hot, finished in 1642. The four-part series about the reconstruction can be seen at AVROTROS this winter.
– .
