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Dutch Golden Age · 1642
Rembrandt van Rijn 1606–1669
Rijksmuseum · Amsterdam
A militia company bursts into motion out of golden gloom — Rembrandt shattered the static group portrait forever.
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Chapter 1 of 7
Amsterdam, sixteen forty-two. The Dutch Republic is rich, proud, and at the peak of its Golden Age. A militia company pays Rembrandt van Rijn to paint their group portrait.
Such pictures were usually stiff rows of faces, each man paying for his spot. Rembrandt does what nobody had dared: he throws the whole company into motion, bursting forward out of shadow — and changes the group portrait forever.
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