Placing The Night Watch face down onto a worktable in preparation for the structural treatment that started on 19 January, was carried out by slowly lowering the painting in a controlled manner using ropes. The use of a hoist with ropes makes you less dependent on manpower. It will not surprise anyone that this principle has been used throughout history for moving large paintings.
Earlier treatments
During the structural treatment of 1975, the painting had to be turned a number of times to be able to work alternately on the front and back. This too was done using ropes. A hoist was installed in the Night Watch Room in order to be able to turn the painting during treatment.
Ropes are also visible in a photo from 1937 – which was made to demonstrate how The Night Watch could be removed from its frame quickly in the event of an emergency. This photo is part of a series taken by the Amsterdam photo studio Jacob Merkelbach for an accompanying publication to a film by Otto van Neijenhoff about the Rijksmuseum.
An accident in 1901
Although we have no photographic evidence, we do have written sources that demonstrate how large paintings were also hoisted with ropes during the 19th century – and were used undoubtably before that as well. An incident from June 1901 shows that this was not always without danger. After decades of disagreement about the lighting of The Night Watch in the Night Watch room, namely with light from above, various tests with the painting were planned in 1901. Experiments were carried out with light coming from different sides of the painting.
Invisible
Fortunately, he writes, restorer Hesterman would be able to treat the damage – in the corner in question where a new crack had formed in the paint layers – and make it invisible 'without inpainting'. The 1901 annual report shows that this indeed happened. Here, Van Riemsdijk takes the opportunity to emphasizes how 'undesirable' it is to move large paintings. This is an interesting remark at a time when (inter)national loans between museums was still in its infancy, but had indeed already started.
Ring
To facilitate these tests, two large militia paintings by Bartholomeus van der Helst had to be moved to another room. During this transport, one of the rings broke with which Van der Helst's Banquet at the Crossbowmen’s Guild (SK-C-2) was hoisted, causing the left corner of the painting to hit the ground from a height of approximately 1 meter. In a letter dated 29 June 1901 to the Committee of Supervision and Advice for the Paintings of the City of Amsterdam, director Van Riemsdijk recounts the incident. He writes that the metal ring had been properly forged and that the fault must have been in the 'homogeneity of the iron', which made the accident unavoidable.