Rembrandt in Berlin

Three exhibitions dedicated to Rembrandt's work are currently running in Berlin. Niklas Maak finds the much-disparaged copies on display at the Berliner Gemäldegalerie particularly interesting. "Gerrit Lunden's small copy of the "Night Watch", which is exhibited in place of the un-transportable original, proves that copies can often show more than the original. This is because Lunden's picture shows the painting in its original form, while Rembrandt's painting was brutally cut down on all four sides so that it would fit between the doors of a small room in the city hall on the Dam. This mutilation robbed the painting of all its vitality. It's only when you see the copy that you realise that Rembrandt wasn't trying to portray a static group, but a seething and dynamic movement."

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