MADRID.- “Just to see that painting would make the journey to Amsterdam worthwhile,” wrote Vincent van Gogh in 1885, after having seen this work in the Rijksmuseum. He particularly liked the “orange banner in the left corner”, he had “seldom seen a more divinely beautiful figure”. The painting that caused such a sensation was the group portrait of the crossbowmen’s militia under Captain Reijnier Reael, painted by Frans Hals and Pieter Codde in 1633 – 1637. Together with Rembrandt and Vermeer, Frans Hals is one of the most important and celebrated 17th-century