Academic thesis

Lisa Witschnig: Reconstructing the Ground Layer of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Methodology and Findings Back
Language: Original   -   Translation
Overview:  
 
Abstract: Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch’s ground layer was found to be a single-layered ground of natural earth with a high quartz content. Its uniqueness has been examined within the Rembrandt Research Project (1968-2014) as well as during the Operation Night Watch Project, which launched in 2019. In the context of this diploma thesis, the priming of The Night Watch was investigated and reconstructed in terms of colour and composition.
The first part of the thesis deals with the colour of the ground layer. In order to reconstruct this, a method for calculating the pigment ratio was developed on the basis of the cross-sections of The Night Watch and related SEM-EDX analysis results regarding the material components.
In addition, the quartz content was investigated in more detail by comparing analyses of the paint outs with micro samples of the original. The results show that possibly only quartz-rich river clay (Rijnklei) was used for the base layer, without sand addition.
The findings of this thesis contribute to a more precise idea of how Rembrandt might have prepared the ground layer and what colour it was at the time The Night Watch was created. Furthermore, new questions arose about the composition of this quartz primer, which is known to have been used in many other paintings on canvas by Rembrandt and the workshop after 1642.

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Keywords: Rembrandt, The Night Watch, Ground Layer, Colour and composition, Reconstructions, Earth pigments, Clay (river Rhine), Quartz, Sand
Details:
  • academic institution: Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
  • kind of theses:  Diplomarbeit
  • main Tutor:  Mag. Dr. Anke Schäning
  • assistant Tutor:  Dr. Esther van Duijn, Dipl.-Rest. Anna Krekeler
  • date:  2023
  • Language:  Englisch
  • pages:  171
  • pictures:  81
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