One of the world’s most famous paintings, Rembrandt’s Night Watch has yielded up yet another secret as it undergoes a massive and highly technological restoration.
Conservators, using 3D imaging techniques, have found a layer of lead-infused oil below the ground Rembrandt applied to the canvas before painting. The particular technique is not known in any of his other paintings, or in the works of others.
The painting, which is the star attraction of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, was originally commissioned by an Amsterdam militia company, and hung in its muster hall, a large drafty building with walls subject to dampness. Rembrandt’s use of a lead base, experts now think, was an attempt to protect the painting against moisture damage.
Incidentally, it is also now known that the painting is not really a Night Watch; it was painted as a daytime scene, and only slowly turned to its present appearance through the darkening of varnishes and other materials applied over the centuries.
