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What happened to Rembrandt’s Conspiracy of the Batavians at Amsterdam Town Hall?
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Rembrandt
Self-Portrait, oil on canvas by Rembrandt, 1659; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Rembrandt’s large-scale painting, Conspiracy of the Batavians, was commissioned for the Amsterdam Town Hall as a replacement for a work by his former pupil, Govert Flinck, who had died before completing the project.1
Although the painting was mounted in its designated location for a short period, it was ultimately not accepted by the patrons. While documents indicate that Rembrandt expected payment to carry out requested changes, the work never returned to its place in the hall. At some point, the painting was cut down to a more manageable size, a modification that may have been performed by the artist himself.1