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\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper<\/a>, an editorial partner of CNN Style.\n<\/p>\n \n If the dog in one corner of Rembrandt\u2019s \u201cThe Night Watch<\/a>\u201d painting looks a little out of place as the brave citizens of Amsterdam march out to defend the city \u2014 it is.\n <\/p>\n \n New research into Rembrandt van Rijn\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe Night Watch\u201d is currently being publicly restored<\/a> inside a glass box at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The museum\u2019s 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<\/a> on the lesser-known artist at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg, the Netherlands, last year.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAs soon as I saw that dog, \u2018The Night Watch\u2019 dog came into my mind \u2014 I recognized it by the turn of the head,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Further investigation into a chalk underdrawing of \u2018The Night Watch,\u2019 using macro X-ray florescence scans, showed even more resemblances between the two dogs. In the final painting, Rembrandt, however, put his dog on all four legs and added a tongue to suggest to the viewer that it was barking at a massive drum.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s very clever how Rembrandt adjusted his dog, putting it in an active stance, vigilant and alert,\u201d she said. \u201cAt 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Rembrandt is known to have had a wide collection of Van de Venne\u2019s prints, Lenders said. She added that a figure in the same illustration also resembles elements of another Rembrandt painting, 1655\u2019s \u201cJoseph Accused by Potiphar\u2019s Wife,\u201d which is held in the collection of the Gem\u00e4ldegalerie in Berlin.\n <\/p>\n Related video: Rembrandt\u2019s \u2018The Night Watch\u2019 is being restored, and the public are invited to watch\n <\/p>\n Related video: Rembrandt\u2019s \u2018The Night Watch\u2019 is being restored, and the public are invited to watch<\/p>\n 1:30 <\/p>\n \n Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, explained that what we might now call \u201ccopying\u201d was both part of an artist\u2019s training and a display of erudition. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want people to call him Rembrandt van Rijn, but just Rembrandt, like Michaelangelo,\u201d Dibbits said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAnd 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nachtwacht-sk-c-5-hond.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Detail](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lenders-fig-5b-rp-t-1919-62-detail-hond.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Adriaen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/tekening-adriaen-van-de-venne.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"431A6473.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/431a6473.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"431A6473.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/431a6473.jpg&q=w_860,c_fill\")
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