伦勃朗《夜巡》赏析（选自英国《卫报》）
是时候重温伦勃朗的《夜巡》了，它是民主的光辉象征
几个世纪以来，伦勃朗的《夜巡》吸引了数以百万计的游客前来参观阿姆斯特丹国立博物馆及其故居，其规模和细节令人眼花缭乱。这件国宝在一大群仰慕它的人面前站住了台。《夜巡》显然是荷兰国家地位的象征。
《夜巡》于17世纪所创作，描绘了由弗朗斯·班尼·科克领导的民兵连的集体肖像。城市民兵连队是荷兰共和国日常生活的一部分，因为它的存在宣告了从西班牙帝国独立。然而，伦勃朗的杰作一点也不像传统的爱国主义绘画。它同时超越和嘲弄了这一题材。
夜巡
伦勃朗展示的不是一群杰出的军官和训练有素的人，而是繁复大量的手势和表情，展现了一大群杂乱无章的滑稽人物形象，从一个弓着枪的老兵到打扮整齐的民兵上尉。他还补充了一些神秘的细节——为什么士兵中会有一个小女孩，为什么光线会以如此动人的金色光芒照射到她身上？
没有任何两张脸指向同一个方向：每个人都在看向不同的地方，每个人物的排列方式都不同。伦勃朗没有选择秩序，而是引入了近乎混乱的状态。可为什么《夜巡》如此激动人心呢？它明明看上去是在嘲讽荷兰只有兼职的民兵和愚蠢的市民时，为什么它被视为国家象征呢？
这一看似喜剧的组合与悲剧形成鲜明的对比。这确实是穿透夜空的一瞥。人，充满人性的一群人，站在一起对抗着不断侵蚀的黑暗。他们四周笼罩着一层柔和的夜雾。照亮他们的光是黑暗中的闪光。正是他们的脆弱、缺陷和古怪让他们更具英雄主义的光辉。
最重要的是，他们作为一个团体站在了一起。在没有任何一副伟大的绘画能如此有力地描绘民主。在古典的雅典，帕台农神庙雕带的雕塑以集体游行的形象代表了雅典的民主。《夜巡》则是整个社群的缩影。但以一种大胆且现代的手法让这个社区看起来很脆弱。
21世纪，民主和共同体文化受到了各种威胁，从气候变化到紧缩的经济，《夜巡》都该被视为一种政治艺术。它所体现的宽容、多样和人性的金光，是这些象征让一个社会运转起来。当这些普通人站岗的时候，我们作为集体在对抗黑暗过程中会感到更安全一些。
Time to revisit Rembrandt's The Night Watch, a glowing symbol of democracy.
The Night Watch by Rembrandt has enraptured millions visiting Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and its previous homes over the centuries, dazzling with its scale and fine detail. This national treasure holds the stage before a swarming, admiring crowd. The Night Watch is plainly a symbol of Dutch nationhood.
The Night Watch was painted in the 17th century as a group portrait of a militia company led by one Frans Banning Cocq. Companies of urban militia were part of the everyday life of the Dutch Republic, as it asserted its independence from the Spanish empire. Yet Rembrandt's masterpiece is nothing like a conventional patriotic painting. It simultaneously transcends and mocks its context.
Instead of a distinguished company of worthy officers and well-trained men Rembrandt shows a baroque profusion of gestures and expressions, a raggle taggle crowd of comic types from an old soldier hunched over his gun to the preening figures of the militia captain. He also adds enigmatic details – why is there a little girl among the soldiers and why does light fall on her in such a moving golden glow?
No two faces point the same way: everyone is looking somewhere else and every figure is differently aligned. Instead of discipline, Rembrandt suggests something close to chaos. So why is The Night Watch so stirring? Why is it considered a national symbol when it seems to mock the Dutch as part-time soldiers and foolish burghers?
The comedy of this immense pairing is counterposed with tragedy. It is, truly, a watch through the night. The human, all too human company stand together against encroaching shadows. A soft, enfolding fog of night surrounds them. The light that illuminates them is a flash in the dark. They are all the more heroic for being so vulnerable, flawed and eccentric.
Most of all, they stand together, as a human community. No other great painting so powerfully depicts democracy. In classical Athens, the sculpted Parthenon frieze represented Athenian democracy to itself in an image of a communal procession. The Night Watch too epitomises an entire community. But in a daringly modern move it makes that community look vulnerable.
In the 21st century, as democracy and community are beset by menaces from climate change to the violent economics of austerity, The Night Watch ought to be cherished as political art. It is an icon of tolerance, persity and the magic golden light that makes a society work. While these ordinary people stand guard, we feel a bit safer in our collective defiance of the dark.
