Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [68]
The Rijksmuseum
Bear in mind that the relatively small size of the exhibition space means that queues can be long, especially in summer and at weekends – it’s a good idea to book online first or come early in the day.
The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein | The Rijksmuseum |
Rooms 1 to 5
The Philips Wing begins in style with two large galleries – Rooms 1 and 2 – which give the historical background to the Dutch Golden Age with features on the country’s success as a trading nation and its naval prowess. Among the paintings on display here is the breezily self-confident The Celebration of the Treaty of Münster, by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–70) – he became one of Amsterdam’s most popular portraitists after Rembrandt abandoned the normal protocols of portraiture to adopt an introspective, religious style that did not impress the city’s burghers one bit. For the Dutch at least, the treaty was well worth celebrating: signed in 1648, it ended the Thirty Years’ War and recognized the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as an independent state, free of Habsburg control. Opposite van der Helst’s painting a smaller work, by Gerard ter Borch, witnesses the event itself. The Thirty Years’ War had convulsed most of western Europe by pitting Catholic against Protestant. Adriaen van de Venne (1589–1662) was quite clear which side he was on; his curious Fishing for Souls, in Room 2, has the disorganized Catholics on the right river bank – and the Protestants merrily heaving in souls on the left.
Room 3 contains several antique dolls’ houses, Room 4 is mostly silverware, and Room 5 showcases a large assortment of delftware, from plates and tiles through to vases, chargers and flower holders. Dating from the late sixteenth century, the earlier pieces are comparatively plain, typically decorated with rural, classical or biblical scenes, whereas the later porcelain is more elaborate and often copied from – or in imitation of – Chinese ceramics.
The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein | The Rijksmuseum | Rooms 1 to 5 |
Delftware
Named after the Dutch city of Delft, where it was manufactured, delftware traces its origins to fifteenth-century Mallorca, where craftsmen developed majolica, a kind of porous pottery that was glazed with metallic oxides. During the Renaissance, these techniques were exported to Italy from where they spread north, first to Antwerp and then to the United Provinces (aka the Netherlands). Initially, delft pottery designs featured landscapes, portraits and Bible stories, while the top end of the market was dominated by more ornate Chinese porcelain imported by the Dutch East India Company. However, when a prolonged civil war in China broke the supply line, Delft’s factories quickly took over the luxury side of the market by copying Chinese designs. By the 1670s, Delft was churning out blue-and-white tiles, plates, panels, jars and vases of all descriptions by the thousand, even exporting to China, where they undercut Chinese producers. The delft factories were themselves undercut by the British and the Germans from the 1760s on, and by the time Napoleon arrived they had all but closed down. There was a modest revival of the delft industry in the 1870s and there are several Dutch producers today, but it’s mostly cheap, mass-produced stuff of little originality.
The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein | The Rijksmuseum |
Rooms 6, 7 and 8
Upstairs, Room 6 holds early seventeenth-century