The Night Watch: microbes sampled from the painting go on show
· BehindLines newsroom
Which microorganisms live on Rembrandt's most famous painting? Amsterdam's microbe museum ARTIS-Micropia and the Rijksmuseum have presented the first answers since 11 November, in the installation "The Night Watch Lives".
A life-size reproduction
According to Hyperallergic, a full-size reproduction of The Night Watch (La Ronde de nuit in French, 1642) hangs on a wall of the museum. Areas of the painting carry a number and a date, showing where and when a sample was taken. In front of it, Petri dishes display the cultured microorganisms. The ARTIS website specifies that sampling is spread over six months, on both varnished and unvarnished parts. The samples are cultured in Micropia's laboratory, then identified by an outside laboratory.
Soil and skin bacteria
The first results, Hyperallergic reports, include soil bacteria, frequently present on plant roots, and familiar skin bacteria. One of them, Microbacterium saccharophilum, had its first identification at a sugar refinery in Japan; how and when it reached the painting remains an open question. Microbiologist Eline van Bloois, interviewed by the site, found it very scary to get so close to such a well-known work. According to Karlien Pijnenborg, who leads the project, three of the six planned sampling trips have taken place. Twenty findings are on display, and there should be 60 by the end. The installation can be seen until the end of May.
A restoration in public view
The project coincides with Operation Night Watch, launched in 2019 by the Rijksmuseum to study and restore the work. According to ARTIS, the work takes place in front of the public, in a glass chamber in the Gallery of Honour. Restorers are currently removing the yellowed varnish applied in the 1970s. According to Hyperallergic, the museum says this is the first time such microbial research has been carried out on a work of art. The site also recalls that in 2023, scientists on the operation discovered a rare lead compound beneath the primer layer; the researchers suspect that Rembrandt applied it to better protect the canvas from mould. The Rijksmuseum's director, Taco Dibbits, said at a press conference that collaboration between the humanities and the exact sciences broadens this kind of research and encourages its wider acceptance.
Why it matters
These results are provisional: according to Hyperallergic, the installation will not be complete until February. Above all, it illustrates how distant disciplines, the exact sciences and the humanities, work together around a painting almost 400 years old.