92 Carel Fabritius (1622–1654) The Sentry, 1654 Oil on canvas, 67.5 × 58 cm Inv. no. G 2477 The treatment of light, the complex spatial arrangement, and the way colour is handled – both for its luminous qualities and textural physicality – anticipate characteristics later seen in other Delft School painters, most notably Johannes Vermeer. Alongside The Goldfinch, The Sentry is regarded as Carel Fabritius’s most beautiful and famous painting. It is arguably also his most enigmatic work. A dozing soldier might suggest a peaceful scene, yet isn’t that someone sneaking past the gate? The composition raises more questions than it answers: why is there a column in front of the gate and a wall behind it? Where does the staircase lead, disappearing as it does into darkness? Why is a gate in the middle of the city being guarded? And why does the painter conceal every face, including that of the figure on the relief? The use of spatial proportions and perspective is so vexing that the painting has been interpreted as a visual manifesto of art theory – a defence for the autonomy of the work of art. Sadly, the artist died in the same year that he completed the work, at the age of just 32, so the world was left without answers. A powder magazine explosion destroyed his house and a third of Delft. _GS
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