Comment by BrandoElFollito | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BrandoElFollito | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

BrandoElFollito

First time I visited the Rijksmuseum I was of course excited to see the night watch. I found it on a side wall, 20x15 cm and was really surprised. I was expecting something more grandiose.

But never mind, I love paintings from that era so I went on admiring the others.

At some point I was in the middle of the central corridor and it then hit me... Wow.

Before getting to the main part of the museum, there were two temporary exhibitions. One was about doll houses and the other was about the activities (work) on a 17th century ship.

The latter was amazing. I was traumatized by the surgeon work, and his 5 tools... 5 tools to handle all injuries - how happy I am too live in France in the 21st century

The Nights Watch takes up nearly an entire wall, not sure what you saw but it wasn't the actual painting.

That's the point - As a sibling comment says - there is a small replica and then suddenly I saw the whole painting at the end of the central corridor. This was a "wow" moment, and an unexpected one

Not only does it take up the entire wall, IIRC part of it was actually cut in order for it to fit that wall.

The sides were cut to fit a place in the old city hall (now palace) on Dam square in 1715.

Since it was not clear from my comment: "At some point I was in the middle of the central corridor and it then hit me... Wow" was when I discovered the real painting on a whole wall at the end of the central corridor. It was amazing

This gives some context to the the size: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40137724

You saw the small replica Rembrandt made for the dude who commissioned the painting. He wanted one to hang in his home. It’s much smaller than the actual piece, which covers a whole wall.

And indeed, the large one got a chunk cut off at some stage as they had to move it. This was long ago when Rembrandt was not particularly in vogue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com