Rembrandt's 'Night Watch' to get restoration

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Rembrandt van Rijn's Golden Age masterpiece "The Night Watch" is getting a makeover.

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum announced Tuesday that it will restore its most famous painting, starting next year in a project that will be open to the public and viewable online.

Rijksmusem General Director Taco Dibbits said that from July the huge Golden Age masterpiece will be encased in a specially built glass chamber as it first undergoes a thorough varnish-to-canvas examination using a precise microscope and other modern techniques. The findings will guide the subsequent restoration.

Equipment for analyzing the painting's condition is seen next to Rembrandt's "Night Watch," which will be restored next year in the public eye in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 16, 2018. /AP Photo

“The restoration techniques we now have are so advanced that we will safeguard the painting for future generations,” he said.

The painting is ready for a little TLC. The work, which last underwent a restoration 40 years ago, is starting to show blanching in parts of the canvas.

“We want to understand what that change is so that we can restore it as well as possible,” Dibbits told reporters at a presentation of the planned restoration.

Journalists attend a press conference where the announcement was made that Rembrandt's "Night Watch," rear, will be restored next year in the public eye at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 16, 2018. /AP Photo

The painting of a citizens' militia completed in 1642 has suffered in the past.

During the World War II Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, it was hidden along with other valuable artworks in a cave in the southern city of Maastricht. In 1975 a man slashed it with a knife, leaving 12 scars in the canvas, and in 1990 an attacker sprayed acid on the canvas damaging the varnish. It took restorers only a couple of weeks to repair the damage inflicted by the acid.

A self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn /VCG Photo

Dibbits said the painting has been retouched many other times in the past and that the later additions are starting to fade.

The next restoration should change all that.

“I think it will look much better,” Dibbits said. “If you stand close to it, it will appear far more detailed. So it will be very special to see, but the restoration process itself will also be very special.”

Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbets waits to answer questions in front of Rembrandt's "Night Watch" at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 16, 2018. /AP Photo

In the past, restorations have often been carried out behind closed doors, but museums now are starting to open up the process to the public.

The "Night Watch" "belongs to us all," Dibbits said.

“That is why we have decided to conduct the restoration within the museum itself and everyone, wherever they are, will be able to follow the process online.”

More than 2 million people each year visit the Rijksmuseum, which has the world's largest collection of Rembrandt works. The Golden Age master is known for his innovative use of light and rebellious compositions.

(Cover: Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbets announces the restoration of Rembrandt's "Night Watch," right, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday, October 16, 2018. /AP Photo)

Source(s): AP