A groundbreaking discovery has revealed that the iconic dog featured in Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpiece "The Night Watch" was actually inspired by an illustration from a widely available 17th-century book. New research into the 1642 painting suggests that the barking canine positioned in the bottom right corner was copied from the title page of a book about the temptations of the flesh, illustrated by Dutch artist, poet, and publisher Adriaen van de Venne.
The remarkable finding came to light when Anne Lenders, curator of 17th-century Dutch paintings at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, visited an exhibition dedicated to van de Venne at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg, Netherlands, last year. "As soon as I saw that dog, The Night Watch dog came into my mind – I recognized it by the turn of the head," Lenders explained. Her keen observation sparked a deeper investigation that would revolutionize understanding of Rembrandt's creative process.
Further analysis using advanced macro X-ray fluorescence scans of a chalk underdrawing of "The Night Watch" revealed even more striking similarities between the two dogs. However, Rembrandt cleverly adapted the original illustration to suit his composition. In van de Venne's 1619 illustration, which served as a frontispiece for a book of works by Dutch poet Jacob Cats, the dog appears in a different pose. Rembrandt transformed the animal by placing it on all four legs and adding a protruding tongue to suggest it was barking at the massive drum featured in the painting.
"It's very clever how Rembrandt adjusted his dog, putting it in an active stance, vigilant and alert," Lenders noted. "At any moment, his dog could run away, and this strengthens the living quality of the painting. It feels like something could happen at any moment and the dog plays a very important role." This artistic modification demonstrates Rembrandt's skill in taking existing imagery and transforming it into something that enhanced the dynamic energy of his composition.
The discovery aligns with what historians know about Rembrandt's collection and artistic practices. According to Lenders, Rembrandt is known to have possessed a wide collection of van de Venne's prints, making it entirely plausible that he would have had access to the source material. Additionally, researchers have identified that a figure in the same van de Venne illustration bears resemblance to elements found in another Rembrandt painting, "Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife" from 1655, which is housed in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie collection.
Taco Dibbits, director of the Rijksmuseum, provided important context for understanding this artistic borrowing within the framework of 17th-century artistic education and practice. What modern viewers might consider copying was actually both a fundamental part of an artist's training and a display of scholarly knowledge. "He didn't want people to call him Rembrandt van Rijn, but just Rembrandt, like Michelangelo," Dibbits explained. "And he really wanted, just like the Italians, to be that learned artist who based himself on prints from his predecessors, who could copy so incredibly well and know them so intimately that he developed them further."
This research breakthrough has been made possible by the current public restoration of "The Night Watch," which is taking place inside a glass box at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The transparent restoration process allows both researchers and the public to witness the meticulous work being performed on one of the world's most famous paintings. The advanced imaging techniques being employed during this restoration have opened new avenues for understanding Rembrandt's methods and sources of inspiration, potentially leading to more discoveries about this masterpiece and others in his body of work.
