>>6207164It is odd, yeah. I am not an art expert or even know that much about it, so my guess isn't worth that much. I thought about the doctors asking Rembrandt to paint them looking at different directions for whatever reason, but yeah, it's a pretty weak guess.
There was this link I found. The article itself isn't that interesting, but the two top comments try to offer some explanation.
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/05/29/410488508/an-intersection-of-science-and-art-in-rembrandts-anatomy-lessonSo 1) He wanted the doctor's faces to be very obvious to the people who paid for it or 2) It is literally a still moment, like a picture taken of a crowd or something like that. The people aren't aware or do not care that someone is taking that photo and therefore are not posing for the photographer (in this case, the Rembrandt). That's why they are looking in different directions.
Okay, that was very long, but it's actually a pretty interesting topic.
