Het Claudius Civilis=nummer van het Konsthistorisk Tidskrift

A recent X-ray examination of the "Governors of the Cloth Guild" has brought to light that, while painting, Rembrandt has long been groping for the definite form of the composition. In the process of development the image of the underpainting, revealed by the X-radiograph, forms an important stage, intermediate between the preparatory drawings in the Print Rooms in Berlin, Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the ultimate result. Not all the pentimenti could be accounted for. Most of them, however, clearly show that the positions of the standing syndic, of the "chairman" and of the syndic most to the right have been shifted a few times. The position of the servant in particular seems to have called for prolonged experimenting, and this thematically subordinate figure is to be regarded as the keystone of the composition. After — presumably two — attempts to place him on the extreme right, Rembrandt tried two or three times to insert him between the two syndics seated on the right. The fact that his head thus came to be on a level with those of the syndics probably produced a disturbing effect, for which reason Rembrandt, boldly disregarding the laws of perspective, finally put him in the centre, high above the chairman. This occasioned a shifting to the left of the chairman. The sound equilibrium of this perfectly rhythmed group-portrait thus proves to have been reached after a persistent grappling with the subject matter, which remained tense to the end.