The question of genre

ON THE RIGHT of Rembrandt's anatomy-picture of 1632 (P1. 2) the physician Nicolaes Tuip, doctor of medicine (Leiden) and praelector anatomiae to the Amsterdam guild of surgeons, demonstrates a dissection of the forearm of a corpse. To the left of him we see seven surgeons of Amsterdam who are identified as such from the list of names on the paper held by one of them. Each name on the list is numbered, and a corresponding number is painted on the canvas by the head of each of the sitters, so enabling us to identify them. But although the authenticity of the names recorded in the list can be confirmed from other sources,' the list itself is thought to be one of three important additions or alterations which, together with numerous minor alterations, make the painting as it now exists no longer the painting which Rembrandt painted. The grounds for suspecting that the list was added later are, first, that it is superimposed on an anatomical figure which is painted in a Rembrandtian manner but which the list obscures (P1. 16); and second, that the list includes as its penultimate item the name of the surgeon whose portrait is crammed in on the extreme left edge of the canvas, Jacob Colevelt (P1. 2). Colevelt's portrait is painted in a different technique from the others, and this fact, together with its unfortunate position, suggests that it also is a later addition by another hand.2 The list, which records its presence, must have been added later still. The third significant alteration affects the surgeon at the peak of the pyramid, Frans van Loenen: X-ray and infra-red photographs show that he was originally portrayed wearing a broad black hat which, though an important part of the original design, was for some reason painted out, perhaps by Rembrandt himself, at a very late stage in the execution.3 In order to see the picture approximately as Rembrandt painted it, we must therefore remove the list of names, restore the anatomical figure, expel the portrait of Colevelt, and reconstruct the hat of van Loenen. Having made these restorations on a photograph (P1. 1, frontispiece), we find that Rembrandt composed his six surgeons in two triangles, one inner and one outer. The three surgeons who form the inner triangle attend eagerly to various aspects of the demonstration, and therefore remain mentally within the picture. The surgeon at the apex of this triangle peers at the book at the feet of the corpse. The three who form the outer triangle (P1. 1) seem to look in various directions out of the picture. The hatted surgeon at the apex of this larger triangle looks straight out at the viewer. The original composition (P1. 1) appears more rational and more coherent than the picture in its present, altered state (P1. 2), which is spoiled by the addition of one figure, Jacob Colevelt, looking into the picture from a position outside even the outer triangle.