The description by frijolito_ts is excellent, but I just wanted to add a few things.
The song has several different points of view that shift over the course of the time. The first three verses are from the point of view of an observer in an art museum at the present time, looking at the picture: "three hundred years have passed," "canvas dark with age." In the next two verses the point of view changes to the artist executing the painting: "smell of paint," "turn those faces all to me." The following verse shifts to the point of view of the actors in the painting itself, the members of the night watch. The last verse returns to a universal viewpoint which provides a broad view of the entire drama.
The description by frijolito_ts is excellent, but I just wanted to add a few things.
The song has several different points of view that shift over the course of the time. The first three verses are from the point of view of an observer in an art museum at the present time, looking at the picture: "three hundred years have passed," "canvas dark with age." In the next two verses the point of view changes to the artist executing the painting: "smell of paint," "turn those faces all to me." The following verse shifts to the point of view of the actors in the painting itself, the members of the night watch. The last verse returns to a universal viewpoint which provides a broad view of the entire drama.