EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style.
If the dog in one corner of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” painting looks a little out of place as the brave citizens of Amsterdam march out to defend the city — it is.
New research into Rembrandt van Rijn’s 1642 masterpiece suggests that this barking dog was inspired by the title page of a widely available book on the temptations of the flesh, illustrated by the Dutch artist, poet and publisher Adriaen van de Venne.
“The Night Watch” is currently being publicly restored inside a glass box at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The museum’s curator of 17th century Dutch paintings, Anne Lenders, said she realized the dog looked like the Van de Venne drawing when she visited an exhibition on the lesser-known artist at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg, the 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,” she said.
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