Hidden for centuries, Rembrandt's secrets are finally being revealed
Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch is one of the world’s best-known paintings. Dating from 1642, the strikingly large canvas – 4.6m across and 3.8m high – depicts a group of civic militia guards led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, the central figure with a red sash and lacy collar (the man to his left, resplendent in cream doublet and feathered hat, is his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch). The scene, which contains 31 figures in total, is unusually chaotic. Rather than solemnly lining up his subjects for a portrait, as was customary at the time, Rembrandt captures them ...
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