The painting was completed in 1642. Formally known as Militia Company of District II Under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (the painting’s simpler, widely known title was erroneously given to it due to its thick, dark yellow varnish), is a commissioned group portrait of a militia company. Such portraits traditionally depicted their members in neat rows or at a banquet. Rembrandt’s version, however, makes the prosaic subject into a dynamic work of art; with its masterful chiaroscuro and dramatic action, the conventions of traditional portraiture are overturned.
