Rijksmuseum says that just like Shakespeare, Rembrandt drew widely and shamelessly from earlier sources
When most people copy someone else’s pictures or ideas it’s generally considered plagiarism. But when Rembrandt did it, it was “emulation” – a display of his craft, experts have said, as they revealed research pointing to an image in one of the Dutch master’s most famous paintings believed to have been inspired by another artist’s work.
The Night Watch, Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece showing the citizens of Amsterdam marching out to defend the city, features a barking dog in the right-hand corner that is largely copied from a popular drawing by a lesser-known Dutch artist, it has been claimed.
An academic paper by Anne Lenders, a curator at the Rijksmuseum, points out the many similarities between the Night Watch’s dog and a canine illustration on the title page of a 17th-century guide on how to defend oneself against sexual temptation.
Taco Dibbits, general director of the Rijksmuseum, told the Guardian that – just like Shakespeare – Rembrandt drew widely and shamelessly from earlier sources.
