Why it matters
Five officials of the Amsterdam drapers' guild, with their servant behind them, look up from their work as if we had just walked in. Their job was to test the quality of cloth against samples, which gave them their Dutch name, staalmeesters. It has been called Rembrandt's 'last great collective portrait'.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1662.
- The five men were two Catholics, a Mennonite, a Remonstrant and a Reformed Protestant.
- It was an unpaid, honorary post; they met three times a week.
- The 1991 restoration showed that what was thought to be a bag of stamps is actually a pair of gloves.
Based on the Wikipedia article Syndics of the Drapers' Guild (CC BY-SA 4.0).
