a 17th‑century painting that moves, The Night Watch | BBC Timestamp

[00:00:01]The Dutch Republic fought Spain to a standstill to secure its freedom. But independence often goes along with civic myths. And in Holland, the rich burgers of Amsterdam liked to portray themselves as vigilant militia companies ready at the drop of a hat to go off to war.

[00:00:21]Though when they commissioned group portraits, what they actually wanted for their money was just a bunch of likenesses. And if there were a lot of them, the artist elasticated the format accordingly to get everyone in.

[00:00:35]But then there was Rembrandt. And what he thought his militia patrons might like more than a collection of the overdressed was an action portrait of an ethos.

[00:00:49]The actual title of the picture is the march out of the company of France Banning And boy are they marching.

[00:00:58]They're on the point of beginning that march. And the idea of this painting is above all energy, [clears throat] dynamism, vitality. That's what Rembrandt wanted to celebrate in Amsterdam.

[00:01:14]It is propulsive. It moves through that frame into our own space.

[00:01:22]Rembrandt has used his entire box of tricks to make this feel like a moving image like a movie. In fact, if you look at the kind of foreshortened hand, the order that's being given is happening in his body language.

[00:01:40]Look at the foreshortened spear. You can see his rather glamorously dressed left tenant in that gorgeous yellow leather coat is just on the point of moving as well. Everything [clears throat] is coming at us.

[00:01:55]And it also has a soundtrack.

[00:01:58]Everything is exploding.

[00:02:02]A gun is being fired.

[00:02:05]A drum is being beaten.

[00:02:08]A dog is barking.

[00:02:11]Take a look at France banning Cock's perfect little mouth and it's open. He is giving that order.

[00:02:19]>> A little girl, maybe the mascot of the company is running into the brilliant light. Some people who have trouble with this painting who thought of it for centuries as kind of garish chaos. Too much too much going on. But Rembrandt being Rembrandt, he stops just this side of chaos that amidst this extraordinary kind of melee is an incredibly strong compositional armature. And it it's an armature of two parallel lines. One angle of the parallelogram arm is made by that rhythm of the lines of the spear, the gun, the partisan.

[00:03:01]On the other hand, it's made by the baton of the Anding captain, the musket, the gorgeous flag of the cloveners.

[00:03:12]And if you think about it, those two lines converge at a kind of arrow head, and the arrow head appropriately is the commander.

[00:03:25]The Night Watch is a perfect miracle of dynamism and discipline together.

[00:03:34]And that's the living ethos that Rembrandt is trying to communicate. In his boiling brain, he reckons he's doing the over stuffed patricians a favor.

[00:03:45]They no longer pose and pin. They act.

[00:03:50]And the fact that it's a painting about freedom with order makes it an extraordinary moment not just in the history of painting but it's a moment in the history of civilization too.

[00:04:03]Amsterdam is beating not only the drum but its own chest saying we can be free but we are also strong and disciplined.

[00:04:13]This is the visual declaration of republican liberty. Watch out art, but watch out the world.