S1634119
jesicaversichele@gmail.com First Reader: Dr. Marike Keblusek Second Reader: Dr. Nana Leigh MA Arts and Culture
Museums and Collections Academic year: 2015/2016
National Heroes, Local Memory and
Dutch Identity in the Museum
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTIONCHAPTER ONE: HOW THE MUSEUMS OF HOLLAND SHAPE CULTURAL MEMORY SECTION 1.1 GEOGRAPHY
SECTION 1.2 LOCATION AND EXPERIENCE SECTION 1.3 CHRONOLOGY
SECTION 1.4 INTERACTIVITY
CHAPTER TWO: WILLIAM OF ORANGE: THE HERO, THE MAN, THE SYMBOL_____ SECTION 2.1 ORANGE AS NATIONAL HERO IN THE RIJKSMUSEUM
SECTION 2.2 THE BIOGRAPHY OF ORANGE IN THE PRINCENHOF DELFT SECTION 2.3 ORANGE AS A SYMBOL IN OUDWESTTHUISBEST
CHAPTER THREE: LOCAL IDENTITY IN ALKMAAR AND LEIDEN
SECTION 3.1 THE STEDELIJK MUSEUM ALKMAAR, THE “VICTORY” AND LOCAL IDENTITY SECTION 3.2 THE LAKENHAL AND RENEGOTIATIG LOCAL MYTHS IN LEIDEN
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: LIST OF FIGURES
Introduction
The Dutch Revolt against the Spanish began in the year 1566 with the iconoclastic fury and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The people of the Low Countries stood up against the Spanish for political, economic and religious regions. The result of their
struggle was the formation of the Dutch Republic, a nation that was unique in Europe in that it was not beholden to a king or the church. It was a republic of burghers who were free to trade, to organize civic institutions and elect their government officials. This time in the history of the Netherlands is referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, a time of unprecedented prosperity and creative and intellectual flowering. For the Dutch, this time period is a source of national pride and identity. The achievements of this age represent the high points of Dutch art and culture. This age is also glorified in Dutch museums. The most glorious testament to the art of the Dutch Golden Age is the Eregalerij or “Gallery of Honor” in the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam. Here paintings by the great masters of the Golden Age are enshrined and adored by thousands of visitors each year. Through the hindsight of history, it appears to the modern observer that the struggle, hardship and sacrifice of the Dutch people during the Revolt led to this pinnacle of artistic achievement, this full expression of national character in the Dutch school of art. Museums, as I shall elaborate on, certainly play up this narrative. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that historical forces have played a significant role is what gets remembered and what gets forgotten in regards to an historical period. This in turn has a bearing on what objects museums keep and display and how these objects are
interpreted for the visitor. In this thesis I will explore how historical forces shape the sense of modern Dutch identity and how this manifests in museum display. Specifically, I will explore the question; How do museums interpret objects from Dutch Revolt and Golden Age as conveying information about Dutch national identity?
I argue that, in their capacity as educative institutions that “translate” the past to make it understandable in the present, Dutch museums transmit information about national identity by drawing the visitor’s attention to objects related to national heroes and events of national significance. This can also be observed at the local level, where the municipal museums of North and South Holland use the events of the Dutch Revolt and Golden Age to draw a sense of local identity. Yet this is not a direct dialogue between past and present. Historical forces, such as the nationalist movement of the 19th century, affected what kind of objects were collected and put on display. Objects related to national heroes, for example, acquired national significance inasmuch as the people they were related to demonstrated some aspect of
national character. The national museum of the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum, was founded in 1808. The building that currently houses the Rijksmuseum, with its chapel-like Eregalerij, was built in 1885. The municipal museums in the provinces of North and South Holland that currently house collections of Golden Age objects were also founded in the second half of the 19th century. 19th century collecting practices thus affected the makeup of collections in these museums. Though the information cards and display cases around these objects has changed over the past 150 years, the objects remain the same. Another historical force that affects museum display is the high level of urbanization in the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. The strength of Dutch cities in early modern times fostered a strong sense of local identity. This sense of local identity and pride can be observed in the region-specific collecting practices of Holland’s municipal museums.
To demonstrate how museums use art and artefacts as rhetorical objects, I will use case studies from the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam and five municipal museums in the provinces of North and South Holland; The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Stedelijk Museum
Alkmaar, the Lakenhal in Leiden, The Westfries Museum in Hoorn, and the Princenhof in Delft. Examples from temporary exhibitions held at the Amsterdam Museum, the Vermeer Centrum in Delft and an archeological display in the Archaeological Center of Castricum will also briefly be discussed. For my methodology I will compare and contrast the presentation of particular subjects in these museums. I will explain how they interpret objects or groups of objects in the exhibits themselves, the museum's websites and museum publications and official statements. To do this, I will give a general overview of the exhibit’s message and then discuss a few individual objects that the museums combine to form a narrative about Dutch national history and identity
The theoretical discourse I will employ for this thesis focuses on myths. The word myth can be defined as “a traditional, typically ancient story dealing with…ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society”. 1 This definition of myth overlaps with the subject matter of historical museums. Museums tell stories about a societies’ ideals and customs through objects. People visit museums on
vacation to learn about another region or country, who their national heroes were and how life was like for the people in that country in the past. Museums mythologize objects in the sense
1 American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. S.v. "myth." Retrieved June 15 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/myth
that they use the object as a stand in for, or illustration of, a person, group of people or event of historical significance. In a myth there is always a storyteller. In the case of the museum this is the curator. In the Netherlands especially, museums tend to be nation-focused as opposed to other countries where national museums are more internationally oriented in their collecting and display practices.2 The Dutch museum, therefore, is an excellent place to analyze national and local myths.
The British historical sociologist, Anthony D. Smith (b.1939), is one of the most important theorists of the ethno-symbolist theory of nationalism. This theory emphasizes the role of myths in forming national identity and revolves around the concept of what Smith calls the “ethnie” or the “ethnic community” that forms the basis of a nation. Ethnies consist of six elements; a collective and proper name, a myth of common ancestry, shared historical
memories, one or more differentiating elements of common culture, association with a
specific homeland and a sense of solidarity among a majority of the population.3 Smith asserts that ethnies could have existed in pre-modern, even ancient times. 4 Nationalist sentiment is given power through the myths and symbols of the national past. The narrative can be altered to make history more inclusive for groups such as women and minorities.5 However, in each ethnic community there is a limit to how much an ethnie can change to accommodate new people and customs.6 In the book Myths and Memories of the Nation Smith identifies the components of ethnic myths, myths that are unique to each culture yet to fall into a few categories when compared with myths from other cultures. For example, many cultures have a “myth of the heroic age” in which a group of people of an ethnic are freed from the tyranny of another ethnic group and then go on to build a prosperous, flourishing society. Smith gives the ancient example of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and the creation of a “Golden Age” under King David.7 These liberation and Golden Age myths can be used by later, more modern societies, as inspiration for nationalist sentiment, especially when it comes to the conception of the 19th century romantic hero. Smith gives the example of the people of 19th century Greece likening the heroes of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman
2 Aaronsson and Elgenius, 1. 3 Smith 1990, 21.
4 McCrone in Bennett and Frow, 324. Smith stands in opposition to the modernist theory of nationalism which asserts that nations can only exist in the conditions of industrial modernity. For a description of the different theories of nationalism see McCrone in Bennett and Frow, 322 and Bell, 67-9.
5 Smith 1999, 9. 6 Smith 1990, 25. 7 Smith 1999, 65.
Empire (1821-32) to the heroes of the Iliad.8 Smith’s description of the “myth of the heroic age” has parallels with how museums treat the Dutch Revolt and Golden Age. Heroes like William of Orange (1532-1584) are celebrated for their roles in liberating the people of The Dutch Republic from Spanish oppression which created a favorable climate for the Golden Age to develop.
Just as any story has a beginning, middle and end, Smith claims that the stories of nations have a past, present and future.9 Smith invented three concepts to aid in the analysis of national past, present and future which he called recurrence, continuity and reappropriation. Continuity deals with the concept that a nation has an official date of origin.10 Dates of origin can be marked with legal documents such as how the Treaty of Munster established the Dutch Republic in 1648. The beginning of national sentiment, however is much harder to pin down. Smith uses the term Recurrence to talk about how societal elements that resemble a national character can exist before the precise date from which a country is recognized as officially existing.11 While continuity is forward looking, reappropriation is the practice of reaching into past for evidence to legitimize elements of contemporary society.12 Museum theorist and historian Tony Bennett identifies a museum practice very similar to reappropriation in his book The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory Politics (1995) which he calls "backtelling" or using what evidence remains to make inferences about the past.13 Bennett explains how disciplines such as anthropology and natural history encouraged backtelling and "evolutionary thinking" in museums, since these disciplines interpret objects as belonging to successive phases of evolution which culminate in contemporary civilization.14 This practice extends to art and history museums, as they tend to also place objects in a chronological spectrum from earliest to most recent with successive historical and artistic developments being interpreted as culminating in the present.15 Art historian Donald Preziosi makes a similar observation in his article "The Museological Myths of Nationality". (2009) He observes that museums confer context upon objects by presenting them as individual pieces that make up the great puzzle of a nation's history.16 The issues with this however is that museums are at will to pick and 8 Ibidem, 66. 9 Ibidem, 11. 10 Ibidem, 11. 11 Ibidem, 11. 12 Ibidem, 12. 13 Bennett, 178. 14 Ibidem, 180. 15 Bennett, 180-1. 16 Preziosi, 40.
choose what objects they want to illustrate their narratives and in the 19th and 20th centuries the tendency was towards homogenizing the narrative and only including evidence that supported it.17
The ethno-symbolist scholar Duncan Bell critiques and expands upon the work of Smith in his article ‘Mythscapes: Memory, Mythology and National Identity’. Bell identifies a problem in Smith's definition of the role of memory in the formation of collective cultural identity in Myths and Memories of the Nation. Smith says that collective cultural identity is formed through memories of shared cultural experiences over successive generations.18 Bell points out that memories cannot be shared over successive generations. People can only be told about events of the past but if that happens then they are no longer memories.19 He emphasizes how important it is to distinguish cultural memory, which can only be shared among the people who participated in the event being remembered, and national myth which is a story about the national history of all people in a country.20 Bell claims that cultural memory and national myth can be reconciled in the "national mythscape", which he defines as a “discursive realm, constituted by and through temporal and spatial dimensions, in which the myths of the nation are forged, transmitted, reconstructed and negotiated constantly."21
Though Bell does not specifically use the word museum to describe this discursive realm, this definition could certainly be applied to how museums negotiate memory and myth. Museums could be considered mythscapes in terms of how they spatially and temporally represent national identity. Museums also find themselves in the role of mediator between past and present, in a way 'translating' the past so it can be understood in the present.22
Scholar of museum studies Marzia Varutti's article ‘Using Different Pasts in
Similar Ways’(2010), makes clear just how powerful the concept of Golden Ages can be in the process of constructing national identity, especially in regard to museums. Using case studies in cultures as different as Norway and China Varutti explains that, even in these vastly different contexts, objects along with text and the museum environment itself can be used as "components of a single composite narrative of national past and identity".23 Varutti also asserts that the establishment of a national myth is central in museum narrative.24 She explains
17 Ibidem, 48. 18 Smith 1999, 262. 19 Bell, 73. 20 Ibidem, 74. 21 Ibidem, 75. 22 Bennett, 178. 23 Varutti, 746 24 ibidem, 756.
that in both Norway and China, the "dominant cultures" identified a group of people from the past that they considered to be the precursors of the modern state. In Norway this group was the Vikings and in China the Huaxia culture. The values of the modern Norwegian and Chinese nations supposedly originated with these groups. In Norwegian museums, for
example, the Viking past is linked to Norway's present day land and seafaring culture through exhibits of Viking ships and recreations of historic Viking farms.25 Like the rest of Western Europe, the wave of nationalism hit Norway in the late 19th century. The 19th century
intellectual elite of Norway looked to the Vikings and peasant culture of the past as a source of authenticity.26 It also represented the "moral values of egalitarianism, tradition, authenticity and a love of nature".27 One can draw parallels here with scholars and curator’s election of the Dutch Golden Age to represent the origins of Dutch values. The exhibition De Gouden Eeuw:
Proeftuin voor Onze Wereld held at the Amsterdam Museum in 2012 went so far as to
conceptualize the Golden Age as an experiment in values and concepts such as globalization, capitalism, tolerance and consumerism.28 Whether or not the actual people of the 17th century would have agreed that those were indeed their values, the exhibition does indicate how important this time period is for the national identity of the modern Dutch.
The Dutch Revolt and Golden Age did mark a turning point in the formation of Dutch national identity. Judith Pollmann, Professor of Early Modern Dutch history at Leiden
University, was the director of a research project called Tales of the Revolt: Memory, oblivion and identity in the Low Countries , 1566-1700 from 2007 until 2013. In her work Pollmann discusses the beginnings of national sentiment in the Early Modern Low Countries. Much of her work focuses in the formation of national or local myths that would later come to form a sense of identity. In her article "Of Living Legends and Authentic Tales: How to Get
Remembered in Early Modern Europe"(2013), she explains that the historical plausibility of myths is a necessary condition for myths to be remembered by succeeding generations29. She also compared in the article the kinds of eyewitness accounts written contemporaneously with the revolt and stories about the revolt that emerged several decades later. Whereas eyewitness accounts described the violence as senseless and being a punishment from God, stories that emerged in later decades focused on the bravery, virtue and cleverness of the townspeople in
25 Ibidem, 756
26 Iibidem, 750
27 Ibidem, 760
28 Goedkoop and Zandvliet, 6. 29 Pollmann 2013, 103.
the face of adversity. It was the stories in the latter group that acquired mythical elements30 An example of this kind of myth making which will be discussed in chapter three is the story of the Self Sacrifice of Mayor Pieter van der Werf of Leiden, a story that emerged after the revolt and appears to have been promoted largely by van der Werf and his family.31 Pollmann was the promotor for the PHD dissertation of Marianne Eckhout titled Material Memories of the Dutch Revolt: The Urban Memory Landscape in the Low Countries , 1566-1700 (2014). This dissertation explores how the Dutch Revolt created or inspired the creation of objects of material culture and how these objects were collected and preserved in the 17th century. She also demonstrates how some of these objects acquired new meanings over time. These sources will provide valuable historical context for the examples I propose to use.
My thesis takes this process a step further chronologically to explore how objects from the Dutch Revolt continue to acquire meanings once they are placed in museum collections. What I aim to add to the debate on Dutch national identity is a discussion of the role that museums play in the preservation of material culture and the negotiation of cultural memory in the Netherlands. In my view, this subject has not been adequately explored in the existing literature in the fields of nationalism studies, museum studies and Dutch history.
30 Ibidem, 106. 31 Eckhout, 128-9.
Chapter One: How Dutch Museums Shape the Memory of the Golden Age Introduction
In my first chapter I will make some general remarks about how museums in the Netherlands present the subject of the Golden Age. This will provide the background information and cultural context of the collections which is necessary for the more detail examples that will follow in chapters two and three. The first section, titled "Geography" deals with how the Rijksmuseum defines "The Netherlands" and how this affects museum display. The second section, titled "Location and Experience", deals with museum architecture and how museums intend for visitor’s experience events and individuals of the Golden Age. The third section, titled 'Chronology' deals with how museums present the passage of time in their collections and whether or not a chronological 'flow' is important or not for a particular museum's narrative. The fourth and final section is titled 'Interactivity' and it discusses how much the museum asks the visitors to interact with the Golden Age exhibits. Together, these museum processes inform how the Dutch Golden Age is remembered by the museum public. 1.1 Geography
When talking about Dutch national history it is important to distinguish between the history of the people of the Low Countries (including modern Belgium) and the history of the people who inhabited the area of the modern Netherlands in the past. Particularly in regards to the Rijksmuseum, one observes that before the Golden Age it is the history of the former and, after about 1600, it is the history of the later. This is in part a reflection of historical fact and in part a reflection of nation-building politics.
The historian of European nationalism, Joep Leerssen says that the Rijksmuseum is one of best examples of the trend of nation-specific collecting. This became a trend in the later 18th century and continued into the 19th when many private collections in Europe were made public for the national education of the people”32. The building that currently houses the Rijksmuseum was built in a Neo-Renaissance style. The use of historicist architecture on this publically accessible building was intended to root the Rijksmuseum (and the nation it represented) in the past, therefore giving symbolic legitimacy to the Dutch nation.33 The 19th century was a fundamental time in the development of the modern museum, as museum 32 Leerssen, 191.
historian Eilean Hooper-Greenhill explains. It was over the course of this century that new practices, such as information cards and catalog raisoneés emerged in order to inform the public about its national history, which they believed would turn them into sympathetic, docile and useful citizens.34 She also talks about the ways in which works of art were arranged in the 19th century that still informs how objects are arranged in museums today, namely that with the development of disciplines such as art history, nationality became the most important criteria for the display and classification of works of art.35
In 2013 the Rijksmuseum was completely remodeled in order to better meet the international standards and expectations of a modern museum. It was also declared a museum of national history by director Wim Pijbes. In 2011 at a conference titled "European National Museums: Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past and the European Citizen" the authors of the conference proceedings put the Rijksmuseum's plan in its European and international context. They identified the Netherlands as being among the countries where museums are more focused on a nation-specific canon, as opposed to some other countries where national museums aim to be more international in their display practices".36 The report then profiles the national museums in each European country. In the report about the Netherlands the author notes the "proportionately huge representation and importance of the National school of painting.”37 A report issued by the Dutch Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 2011 also notes how important Dutch art is, particularly in the Rijksmuseum and how this institution has resisted the internationalization tendencies that can be observed in other countries in Western Europe.38 From these observations one may come to the conclusion that the decision to focus on the national school in the Rijksmuseum is politically motivated and that
this political motivation affects what objects are collected and put on view in the museum. For example, in the Rijksmuseum's displays of Renaissance objects one notices a tendency to include works of "Flemish" as well as "Netherlandish" art in the same
exhibits. Examples include monumental peasant and kitchen genre paintings by Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575) and his student Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574). The Ten weepers from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon attributed to Renier van Thienen from around 1475 is also given a lot of attention in the Renaissance exhibit as, in addition to being quite unique and
34 Hooper-Greenhill, 182. 35 Ibidem, 188.
36 Aaronsson and Elgenius, 1.
37 Bodenstein, Felicity. “National Museums in the Netherlands”, in Arronsson and Elgenius, 595-604, pp. 604. 38 Ibidem, 604.
beautiful, they fit in with the museum's narrative of the Burgundian court as contributing a rich artistic culture to the Low Countries in the Renaissance.
Yet in exhibits of the Golden Age, works of art made in Flanders in the 17th century are largely excluded. There are some smaller decorative works but the Rijksmuseum's main focus is on painting and, with the exception of a large painting by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) and one by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), monumental works of Flemish painting are confined to the Renaissance gallery. The Rijksmuseum has three paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in its collection, yet only one of these works, The Chariot of Kallo (1638), are not on view as of this writing. This, of course, reflects the art historical and political distinction between art made in the Low Countries under the Burgundian empire and, from 1581 onward, the separate entities of The Dutch Republic and the Spanish
Netherlands. Yet one must also consider that this art historical distinction was influenced by 19th century politics. After the breakup of Napoleon's empire in 1815 the Low Countries were formed into The United Kingdom of the Netherlands which included the modern day
Netherlands and most of modern day Belgium. This entity was ruled by King William I of the house of Orange-Nassau, the heir to the position of the stadholder of the Dutch Republic. This lasted until the Belgian Revolution in 1830 which split the entity into the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium.
One may question whether or not the political distinction between the Netherlands and Belgium in both the 17th and 19th centuries warrants a separation on artistic or cultural
grounds. One of the reasons cited for the beginnings of the Dutch style of art was the influx of artists from the south, including Karel van Mander (1548-1606) and his student, the
young Frans Hals (1580-1666).39 One can also not discount the influence of the Italian Baroque on Dutch artists of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The
Mannerism/caravaggism section of room 2.1 in the Rijksmuseum has a painting by Italian caravaggesque painter Orazio Borgiani (1575-1616). This helps out the museum's didactic ends by showing concretely what caravaggesque art looks like. Indeed, it would seem important for an art museum to explain that no art exists in a vacuum. Again, however, the inclusion of Italian art and the explanation of its influence on Dutch art are relegated primarily to the Renaissance galleries.
Most national museums are 'encyclopedic' in the sense that in addition to focusing on their 'national' school, the national art is placed within its European context. The National Gallery of London and the Louvre are good examples. In recent years the Rijksmuseum has 39 Price, 107.
purchased some objects that achieve this end, yet only up to a point, and the core of the Golden Age gallery in the Rijksmuseum is distinctly and exclusively Dutch.
This exclusivity is particularly evident in the Eregalerij or "Gallery of Honor". This gallery features works of art that are considered to be the epitome of the Dutch National school of painting. These artists include Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Frans Hals, Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) and Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682). It excludes foreign art or art that has a noticeable foreign influence such as the Caravaggesque painters of Utrecht. A critique of the museum says that this gallery reflects the 19th century aesthetic of art for art’s sake and that the arrangement of art in the Eregalerij would probably confuse a person from the 17th century"40 The art of Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), the mannerists, and the Utrecht Italianate painters would have been considered more 'mainstream' than what is included in today's canon.41 In the Rijksmuseum these styles of art are in the periphery. The definition of who is considered an old master has also changed over time. In the 17th century artists like Vermeer and Van Ruisdael would have been peripheral yet starting in the 19th century they were considered undisputed masters.42
While other European influences are peripheral in the Rijksmuseum's presentation of the Golden Age, the Netherland's connection to Asia is given great
importance. The pavilion of Asian art was constructed during the 2003-2013 renovation, effectively establishing a dialogue between eastern art and the rest of the collection. The importance of the dialogue between East and West in Dutch museums is a topic that has been getting more attention in recent years. In 2015 the connection between Asia and the
Netherlands was explored in an exhibition called “Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age". The curators of the exhibition, Jan van Campen and Mariette Havemann, stated that insufficient attention has been paid to this subject in the past. Dutch historian Simon Schama, for example, doesn't mention it at all in his landmark book The
Embarrassment of Riches (1987). Using the example of the pieces of Chinese porcelain depicted in the still life paintings of Willem Kalf (1619-1693), van Campen and Havemann say that the presence of these pieces has come to be seen as so ubiquitous to depictions of Dutch life in the Golden Age that they are taken for granted. In their example,
the Kalf paintings are a metaphor for how the connection between the Netherlands and Asia has been viewed in the past, clearly evident but largely ignored.43 The historical arrangement 40 Janssen, 154.
41 Price, 132. 42 Ibidem, 108-111.
of the Rijksmuseum also allows for the subjects like the VOC and the colonization of Indonesia to come forward, especially in room 2.9 "The Netherlands Overseas".
Finally, the Rijksmuseum tends to exclude Golden Age objects from provinces outside North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht in their overall collection of art from this time period. When one talks about the Dutch Golden Age they are really talking about the Golden Age of Holland. This region was the most highly urbanized region in all of Europe in the 17th century.44 This small part of the country also had the most developed culture of learning, literature and artistic production. While the Rijksmuseum collects contemporary art from all over the country, the Golden Age collection of objects originates almost exclusively from the provinces of North and South Holland and the neighboring province of Utrecht. However, just as the country of the Netherlands and the region of Holland are conflated in the minds of those who aren't informed of the difference, so too is the culture of Holland conflated with the culture and history of the entire country.
In translating the art and objects of the 17th century for people of the 21st, it is not a direct dialogue. The dialogue between the 17th and 21's centuries is muddled by a
19th century sense of taste and geography. It is important to consider that what the visitor sees in the Rijksmuseum was shaped by historical forces. These historical forces led to an
exclusion of some foreign elements and the inclusion of others in the canon of Dutch art.
1.3 Location and Experience
A quote from Schama's Book The Embarrassment of Riches neatly sums up the relationship between local and national identity in the 16th century;
“Dutch patriotism was not the cause, but the consequence, of the revolt against Spain. Irrespective of its invention after the fact, however, it rapidly became a powerful focus of allegiance to people who considered themselves fighting for hearth and home. No matter that hearth and home more obviously meant Leiden or Haarlem than some new abstraction of a union, the concept of a common patria undoubtedly gave comfort and hope to citizens who might have otherwise have felt themselves desperately isolated as well as physically beleaguered.”45
44 Israel, 113. 45 Schama, 69.
It is easy to see the Eighty Years War as a point of origin at the national level through the lens of hindsight. To the people of the 16th century a sense of local identity would have been concrete and a sense of national identity new and abstract.46 The role of the city in Dutch history is imperative, especially when considering the early history of the nation as the power and concentration of people in the cities made provincial, let alone national cohesion
difficult.47 What little sense of national sentiment they might have had also differed from modern sentiment as can be seen in the map of the "Leo Belgicus"[fig.1]48 This is an image of the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries that, put together, resembles a lion. The “Leo Belgicus” was a symbol of the uprising in 16th century. This group of provinces did not have an official name or a common language, which Smith says are two of the criteria in defining a modern nation.49 Despite the differences in religion between the northern and southern
Netherlands, there seems to have been some sort of consensus that the people of the Low Countries included the people of what is now part of modern Belgium. William of Orange's campaign certainly extended to these cities in an effort to unite all the Dutch speaking peoples, even making Antwerp the headquarters for the revolt.
Because the Rijksmuseum’s collection spans roughly 1000 years, from the Middle Ages to the present day, the curators run into the problem of how to define “The Netherlands” because political boarders changed so much over the last millennium, and because there was no word to collectively describe the people of the Low Countries until the 16th century50. Many cities in the Netherlands can also trace their history back to the Middle Ages, yet as opposed to the Dutch nation, curators and historians have very little trouble defining a Dutch city in my opinion. Cities have a historical longevity that transcend the shifting boarders of states and empires. If one brings to mind the elements of ethnies as described in Smith; a collective and proper name, a myth of common ancestry, shared historical memories, one or more differentiating elements of common culture, association with a specific homeland (or city) and a sense of solidarity among a majority of the population, one realizes that these elements could be used to describe Dutch cities at a much earlier date than they could be used to describe the nation of The Netherlands. Historically, at the time of the Dutch Revolt and during the Golden Age, the people of the Low Countries identified more strongly as being a 46 Price, 10.
47 Israel, 24. 48 Schama, 54.
49 Ibidem, 54, 57-8. Smith 1991, 21.
50 Duke, Alastair. “In Defence of the Common Fatherland: Patriotism and Liberty in the Low Countries 1555-1576,”in Pollmann and Stein, 217-239, pp. 237
resident of a city than as being a member of a nation.51 This sense of cities being a string of connected islands as opposed to a unified country or kingdom resulted in cities forming unique and visible local cultures, economies and schools of art.52 Thus, in contrast to the Rijksmuseum, the curators of municipal museums in the Netherlands have an easier time defining the geographical range of their Golden Age collections, as cities in that time had a much more concrete sense of identity than the nascent Dutch nation.
The regional diversity of the Netherlands is strongly felt in the municipal museums that, historically, have drawn their collections from the cultural elite of the cities.53 This would include the descendants of merchant families of the Golden Age who had kept a large deal of their cultural capital (paintings, decorative objects ect.) until the 19th century when they were donated to the museums. These collections were augmented by archeological findings from the closely surrounding areas. The Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and Westfries Museum include archaeological finds, such as glass and ceramics unearthed in the surrounding areas, in their exhibitions on the Golden Age. These archaeological objects impart a different sense of location than objects that were collected and donated by individuals in that they give a snapshot of how objects were used and consumed locally. They also present a
counter-narrative to the collecting practices of the cultural elite, as the objects unearthed from the ground once belonged to people from all strata of society. Bell explains that "The spatial dimension tends to be rooted in particular constructions of an often-idealized bounded territory, for example a romanticized national landscape: As such it includes a powerful narrative of place, embodying the topophilic power of a ‘here-feeling'”54 I argue that the sense of 'here feeling' is stronger at the local level in the Netherlands than at the national level due to the region-specific collecting practices of the municipal museums. Many of the most profound events of the Golden Age happened in cities, thus events of national significance get wrapped up in a layer of local significance. This is true in a general sense for aspects such as the growth of trade and commerce in the Golden Age. Each of the museums in this discussion treats the city's contribution to the early Dutch economy in some way. The Lakenhal, for example, has an exhibition on the cloth trade during Leiden’s Golden Age, which ties in with the history of the building that was used for the business of cloth inspection during that time.
51 Duke, Alastair. “In Defence of the Common Fatherland: Patriotism and Liberty in the Low Countries 1555-1576,”in Pollmann and Stein, 217-239, pp. 220.
52 Eckhout, 7.
53 In Haarlem: Erftemeijer 2013, Alkmaar: Koolwijk, Vries, Leiden: Zijlmans, Eckhout Hoorn: Saaltink 54 Bell, 75
The museum buildings themselves are also important aspects of
location. The Lakenhal's website even calls the building the "largest object in the collection". With the exceptions of the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, all of the museums under discussion are housed in 16th or 17th century buildings that once served another purpose. In these instances, the buildings themselves become exhibits and in some cases form part of the identity of the museum. The Frans Hals museum, a former care facility for the elderly and later an orphanage, makes a connection between the building's function and their practice of collecting and interpreting group portraits of charitable institutions. Two objects that really encompasses the identity of the museum are Frans Hals’ group portraits, The Regentesses of the Old Men’s Alms House and the Regents of the Old Men’s Alms House, [Fig 2a and b] both from 1664. Hals received a commission to paint these two groups of regents of the Alms House that now houses the Frans Hals museum. The museum catalog examines their art historical significance and their importance to the history of the building.55 When given the opportunity, the Amsterdam Museum also uses architecture to shape
experience. In their own building in a former orphanage they take the opportunity to teach children what it was like to grow up in an orphanage in the 17th century.56 The former director of the Amsterdam Museum in his forward to the catalog of “Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age” thought it important to mention that the Hermitage Museum was once a charitable institution, as regent portraits were featured in that exhibition.57 This experience of walking through a former care institution and then looking at portraits of the people who would have governed such an institution imparts a different kind of knowledge to the visitor than if they were viewing the same portrait in a modern gallery.
The historic nature of these buildings also affects how the visitor experiences space. In Alkmaar, for example, the exhibits have spacious, open plans with plenty of room for video installations. Ease of movement is a central concern with wide, straight staircases. By
contrast, in the Westfries museum, housed in the former city hall of Hoorn which was built in the 17th century, the rooms get smaller with each floor, accessed by worn, narrow, spiral staircases. The floors and interiors of the Westfries museum were taken from houses dating from several centuries in the early modern period. This experience of walking in the footsteps of people from the past is an important aspect of the Westfries museum that more modern, purpose built museums cannot impart to the visitor. In history part of the 'here-feeling' that 55 Erftemeijer et al, 96-99 also explored in detail in Erftemeijer, 201
56 Unknown Author “The Little Orphanage: Children on Adventure in a 17th Century Orphanage”, Amsterdam Museum, https://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/little-orphanage
Bell talks about comes from the sense that 'here' can also mean the past. History, in this sense, is a location, the locality of which can be enhanced by museum architecture.
Another way that visitors can experience the Golden Age is by bringing to mind events that happened in a certain location or individuals that lived there when evidence of that event or person have since ceased to exist. This is what the Vermeer Center in Delft does. The memory of Vermeer and his artistic oeuvre are strongly tied to the city. Yet no paintings of Vermeer remain in the city. Since Vermeer's [in]famous persona, draws attention and tourism to the city, it seems somewhat disappointing that visitor cannot see some relic of him in the city he was so connected to. The Vermeer Center does not call itself a museum and has no artefacts from Vermeer's time or relics of the artist himself. But it is essentially a museum in all but name. In its presentation of information through text, film, images and an audio guide, its exhibits resemble a museum in all aspects. The center explores the (scant) information about the artist's life and education and formal qualities of his works such as use of light, color and subject matter. The Vermeer Center is what Hooper-Greenhill calls the
“total-Museum”, as in a museum in which ideas and information are the primary and objects of secondary importance.58 While this is an extreme example, it makes one consider the nature of object importance and the experience of an individual in the absence of “relics” in
exhibitions of the Golden Age.
Two professors and researchers of early modern culture at the University of Western Australia, Susan Broomhall and Jennifer Spinks, did a study of how the tourist boards of Amsterdam and Leiden created visitor experiences centered around the person of Rembrandt van Rijn. They did this through the creation of city walks in which the visitor would
encounter a range of buildings, landscapes and localities that were of significance to
Rembrandt. They acknowledged that tourist boards and cultural institutions were faced with the duality of presenting the artist as an individual while at the same time presenting him as representative of a shared national character. Rembrandt did this, they argue, because the consistent aspects of his person and artistic output were also consistent with the characteristics of Dutch cultural tourism.59 The conclusion of the study was that by visiting a place associated with Rembrandt, it spoke more to a visitors sense of self understanding than it enhanced their understanding of the life of Rembrandt.60 In a way that’s similar to a tourist center, museums
58 Hooper-Greenhill, 208. 59 Broomhall and Spinks, 11. 60 Ibidem, 18.
are also responsible for creating an experience centered around historic events and individuals.
1.3 Chronology
Bennett observes that when museums are housed in purpose-built architecture, there is a tendency to employ a chronological succession of exhibits. These exhibits tend to be
‘evolutionary’ showing a progression from remote past to the present, from simplicity to sophistication.61 Although both historical narratives and the objects themselves are important in all of these museums, one notices that some museums present the events of the Dutch Golden Age in chronological succession and the objects and historical figures are placed in their appropriate place in the museum timeline. Other museums do not present an unfolding chronology of events. In such museums objects may be interpreted based on their social function or their importance in illustrating some aspect of art history or material culture.
The chronological arrangement of objects in the Rijksmuseum dates from the time of the renovation in 2013. Before 2013, objects in the Rijksmuseum were organized according to object type. After the remodel they were re-arranged chronologically, moving from the Middle Ages to the present time. The color of the walls adds to the impression of an
evolutionary progression of time. Visitors move from the Middle Ages, where the walls are very dark, to the 20th century where the walls are white. This color scheme has been critiqued because it reinforces preconceived notions of how art is typically viewed. Medieval art is viewed in dark churches and modern art is viewed in a "white cube".62 The Golden Age exhibits take up the most amount of space but all time periods from the Middle Ages until the present day are represented. It is germane to consider how much space the Golden Age is given in an institution like the Rijksmuseum, as it connotes how important it is in the grand scheme of history. Local museums tend to pick and choose what time periods to include based on how important they were for local history and identity. In the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, for example, the Dutch Revolt (more specifically the year 1573) and Golden Age are given great importance, as is the 20th century expressionist art movement called
the Bergense School, quite a jump in time. One can observe that even within the same
museum different exhibits have different chronologies. The most chronological exhibit in this discussion is the "Seige of Alkmaar" exhibit in that has a prescribed route that the visitor must 61 Bennett, 181.
follow from the beginning to the end. The same museum's exhibit of the
20th century Bergense School is presented more in terms of technique and its importance of a movement as opposed to an unfolding series of events.
Because the Rijksmuseum is encyclopedic, and follows the history of the Netherlands from its remote medieval past until the present day, one can observe what Smith calls
narratives of birth and decline of the nation. The birth of the nation will be discussed later in the chapter on William of Orange. But just as Orange represents the beginning of the Dutch national character, the Rijksmuseum also suggests that there was an event that signals the beginning of the end, of both the Dutch Republic and the values it stood for. Room 2.18 is called “Burghers in Power”. The wall text in this room succinctly describes the situation of the Dutch Republic; " 'True liberty' is what many people called the period that dawned in 1651" begins the text. It goes on to explain how, instead central power being concentrated in the hands of the Princes of Orange, it was the citizens that held the majority of the power, with economic interests being their prime concern. This was because the Stadtholder, Willem III of Orange was underage and the States General was the governing body in power. Grand Pensionary of the Province of Holland, Johan de Witt of Dordrecht (1625-1672) emerged as the leading citizen in the States General. This time is remembered as being very prosperous, a time when important administrator of Holland and the Republic. During that period," the country's power and prosperity seemed only to increase. This ended abruptly in 1672, however, when the country was attacked from all sides. The young Prince William III of Orange seized power, and De Witt and his brother were brutally assassinated."63 This text could be interpreted as the Rijksmuseum equating the cooperative government of de Witt and the citizens with prosperity. The return of centralized power under William III is equated with the "disaster year" of 1672 when the country was swept up in violence that led to the lynching of de Witt, who in the same paragraph was associated with "true liberty" and prosperity.
The language used in the text in exhibits about 1672, "the disaster
year", correspond to Smith's myth of decline. Times of decline typically follow Golden Ages and come about because "the old virtues were forgotten, moral decay set in, pleasure and vice overcame discipline and self-sacrifice, the old certainties and hierarchies dissolved, the barbarians burst through…the community lost its anchor in a living tradition, [and] the old values became ossified and meaningless" 64 In the story of the Dutch Republic, elements like
63 Wall Text, Rijksmuseum room 2.18 "The Burghers in Power". "Attacked from all sides" refers to the invasions by England and France in 1672.
loss of virtue and barbaric (i.e foreign) invasion come into play. The Rijksmuseum's exhibits make a distinction between republican, moral, "Dutch" values and monarchial, decadent, "foreign" values. In this room there are also regent portraits of charitable institutions and several portraits of prominent burghers that exude self-confidence. It is like the Rijksmuseum is associating the decline of the powerful burgher and the restoration of the monarchy with the decline of an essential aspect of the national character of the Dutch which was drawn from the values of the Golden Age.
The chronology of a museum determines what kind of information will be presented about objects on display. Objects are never presented haphazardly. All objects in these museums are related to the objects around them in some way, whether it be as part of a chronological narrative or part of a general theme. Chinese porcelain, for example, is related to other objects in the Rijksmuseum differently than in the Westfries museum. In the
Rijksmuseum a great deal of the Chinese porcelain and the Delft Blue ceramics are presented in rooms 2.9, "The Netherlands Overseas" and 2.22, "King-Stadhouder Willem III and Mary Stuart/ Delft Earthenware". In these rooms the porcelain is explained in the context of the VOC, trade and empire building in 2.9 and in relation to William and Mary's role in influencing taste during their reign in 2.22. To make this connection clear requires explanatory wall text.
In the Westfries museum, very little information is given about the objects other than the "tombstone" (artist, date of creation, material ect.). The rooms of the Westfries museum all have clear themes but they do not present a chronological unfolding of specific events.
Themes include overseas trade, medicine, and food and drink in the Golden Age. While the Rijksmuseum tends to interpret objects based on their political context, the Westfries museum interprets objects based on their social uses. The Chinese porcelain in the Westfries museum is grouped together with still life paintings, glass drinking vessels, silver cups and kitchen utensils. In the same room where the objects related to food and drink are displayed the visitor can sit at a table and look at a TV screen that's shaped like a plate. On the screen is an
interactive menu, literally, where the visitor can select an 'appetizer, first course, second course or dessert'. An animated video then plays, and, based on the visitor's selection, informs the visitor about what people in the Golden Age ate for that course and how objects in the room would have been used in the meal. The Westfries museum has a monumental schutterstuk (civic guard) group portrait in its collection.Schutterstukken are typically interpreted through the public and symbolic role that members of the Civic Guard played in
the society of the Golden Age.65 In contrast, the museum guide of the Westfries Museum uses the schutterstuk, in which the guardsmen are seated at a banquet, to illustrate how the glasses, silverware and other objects in the room would have been used at a banquet.66 These objects are interpreted through their utilitarian and social functions as opposed to being presented through a political lens. From the same types of objects, a different aspect of life in the Golden Age becomes clear. In this case food, an acknowledged bridge between world cultures, is here used as a bridge between the cultures of past and present.
1.4 Interactivity
A fourth way that museums in the Netherlands shape memory of the Golden Age is by offering visitors a chance to interact with the exhibits. This involves exhibits that alter the relationship between curator, visitor and object. The conservative relationship is that a curator explains an object through text and the visitor passively receives this knowledge. An
interactive exhibit could require the visitor to use other senses besides visor or ask them to perform certain actions. To illustrate my point, I will use two examples from the city of Delft; the "Vermeer's Little Street" temporary exhibition at the Princenhof and the entire
presentation of the Vermeer Center.
The entire exhibition takes up one large, long room. The painting of the Little Street is presented in along with the documents that led to scholars being able to locate
the precise address of the house in the painting. Other paintings in the exhibition feature similar style and subject matter to Vermeer's "Street". The exhibition turns interactive when one exits the large rooms and goes into a smaller separate room. In this room there is a live-sized markup of the Little Street where visitors are encouraged to take a picture of themselves outside the house and share it on social media with the hashtag #Delfie. In the same room as the #Delfie wall is a large box, an escape room, that locks visitor in for 15 minutes as they solve a series puzzle [Fig.3]. The premise of the escape room, which is constructed to look like a room from the Golden Age with Delft blue tiles and all, is that Vermeer has died and the visitor has to find the hidden painting before the debt collectors show up and seize it. A voice recording of Vermeer's widow plays, yelling at the visitor to hurry up and crying if the visitor fails to find it (I'm not sure what she says if the visitor succeeds).
65 For examples see Knevel. 66Spruit, 29-35.
While this may seem like frivolous entertainment it is actually an acknowledgement on the part of the Princenhof that the relationship between visitor and museum is changing. Visitors no longer want to passively accept the knowledge of the curator all the time. Other exhibits in the Princenhof acknowledges this. In another exhibit on the subject of science and exploration in the Golden Age there is an interactive exhibit installed by the Technological University of Delft that invites visitors to try out some of the scientific concepts being presented. In an exhibition about Vermeer's use of light the visitor can shade in a blank illustration of fruit on a dry erase board to see if they can apply Vermeer's use of light and shadow. Except for the Rijksmuseum, all of the museums in this discussion have some interactive elements. The Rijksmuseum’s presentation of objects and text is not interactive, though they have released a smartphone app that accompanies the exhibitions. In this case the Rijksmuseum is acknowledging the increasingly important role that technology is playing in how visitors interact with the exhibits.
Chapter Two: William of Orange: The Hero, the Man, the National Symbol Introduction
William of Orange (1533-1584), the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish, is considered to be the "father of the fatherland" by the Dutch. As a national hero and symbol, his image often stands for the nation itself and its values. Orange displayed the typically heroic qualities of bravery and military prowess. He also, according to the Rijksmuseum, supported religious freedom. King Phillip II (1527-1598) of Spain’s brutal persecution of Protestantism was one of the main reasons for the revolt. Even though Phillip had appointed Orange stadholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, effectively making him the most powerful man in the Low Countries , Orange could not abide Phillip’s relentless attempts to force Catholicism on everyone in his kingdom.67 For the people of his time he was a symbol of hope that one day the tyranny of the Spanish would end, and that the people of the Low Countries could practice their faith freely.68 Orange political message, which focused on freeing the people of the Low Countries from Spanish tyranny, was secular in nature and was meant to appeal to both Catholics and Protestants.69 Today he is remembered as a national hero precisely because he is seen as a symbol of liberty and tolerance.70
According to Pollmann, Orange was a crucial figure in the formation of Dutch national identity in the 17th century. His campaign against the Spanish was fought not only with weapons but with words and images. In Orange’s 1581 Apology, Orange claimed that, as a German, he was the “natural friend” of the Dutch and the “natural enemy” of the Spanish.71 Orange’s campaign involved the spread of pamphlets demonizing the “prideful, arrogant, cruel and lustful Spanish” and using symbols such as the Leo Belgicus to unify the people of the Low Countries.72 Orange also fostered a sense of common Dutch identity in his
propaganda by using terms such as “the common fatherland” to refer to the Low Countries and “lovers of the liberties of the fatherland” to refer to the people.73 It is important to note that Orange did not invent Dutch national sentiment.74 He was, however, an important (if not 67Unknown Author, ”Willem van Orange” Rijksmuseum
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/ontdek-de-collectie/historische-personen/willem-van-oranje 68 Israel,162.
69 ibidem, 164 70 Horst, 65
71 Pollmann, Judith. “No Man’s Land: Reinventing Netherlandish Identities 1581-1612” in Pollmann and Stein, 241-261, pp. 241.
72 Pollmann in Pollmann and Stein, 242. 73 Duke in Pollmann and Stein, 234. 74 Duke in Pollmann and Stein, 233.
the most important) individual contributor to a unified sense of Dutch identity in the 17th century.
With Dutch nationalism in the 19th century, he obtained a new importance as a national hero. The most indicative example of this is that the "Wilhelmus", a war song that united the followers of Orange during the revolt, became the official national anthem of the Netherlands in the 19th century. In the previous centuries, the song was an anthem for the supporters of the House of Orange. It was only at the end of the 19th century that the song became the national anthem.75 William of Orange was not always the undisputed ‘father of the fatherland’ as he, and his later decedents, had opponents as well as supporters.76 Yet after the collapse of Napoleon’s empire the Dutch people were once again in a time of transition from foreign to autonomous rule. The people may have felt an affinity with Orange and his ideals. In the 19th and 20th centuries, museums strove to present a concise and non-contradictory national narrative.77 Given this tendency and the fact that Dutch scholars were actively trying to construct a canon of events and heroes during this time, the significance of Orange as a national hero was solidified at this time.78
2.1. William of Orange in the Rijksmuseum: The Hero
To begin the discussion on William of Orange, I would like to discuss a report published by the Committee for the Development of the Dutch Canon titled A Key to Dutch History: The Cultural Canon of the Netherlands. The development of a historical canon was commissioned by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science in 2005. The ministry identified the "lack of a canon as an expression of our cultural identity" as being a significant problem in Dutch education.79 The 'canon' consists of people, events and places that
the ministry considers essential to the formation of Dutch cultural identity and that all children in Dutch schools should know about these topics. William of Orange is among the important people chosen for the canon and is described as being the "father of the country". After giving a short biography of Orange, the entry lists some sub topics, many of which are addressed in museum exhibits about Orange. These include his assassination, his leadership 75 Leersson, 188, Israel, 162.
76 Israel, 162. In the early 18th century the Wilhelmus was the anthem of supporters of the House of Orange and was not considered a song that represented the Dutch as a people until the 19th century.
77 Preziosi,48.
78 McCrone, 321, Ernest Renan gives a lecture in 1882 titled “What is a Nation?” talks about Holland, Carasso, 9. 1867 Leidse historicus Robert Fruin gave speech about importance of history "The problem with what has been written is that it’s for a previous generation, for Netherlanders on another, lower step of civilization than where we are now. They had lower values than we do today"
of the Geuzen, or 'sea beggars', the Dutch Rebellion, The Rebellion from the Spanish perspective, his relationship with his wives and the bond between the House of Orange and the people.80 The entry also lists several places where one can learn more about Orange including three museums; The Princenhof, the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and the Lakenhal.
The Rijksmuseum was not on this list because the exhibition on William of Orange and the origins of the Republic were only added during the 2013 remodeling. The
Rijksmuseum published a biography of Orange by Daniel Horst in that year, using objects from the museum's collection to illustrate his life. The Rijksmuseum's new chronology is similar to Smith's chronology of ethnic myths as described in Myths and Memories of the Nation.81 The Rijksmuseum exhibit titled "The Birth of the Republic/Mannerism
and Carravagism" closely relates to Smith's 'Myth of the Heroic Age' which encompasses the 'Golden Age' of an ethnic group and the events that led to that Golden Age coming into being. He explains that "The future of the ethnic community can only derive meaning and achieve its form from the pristine 'Golden Age' when men were 'heroes'. Heroes provide models of virtuous conduct, their deeds of valor inspire faith and courage in their oppressed and decadent descendants. The epoch in which they flourished is the great age of liberation from the foreign yoke, which released the energies of the people for cultural innovation and original political experiment."82
"The Birth of the Republic/Mannerism Caravaggism" exhibit positions the person of William of Orange within the museum's overall chronology as well as equate the beginning of the Dutch Republic with the beginning of a distinctly Dutch school of art and visual culture. A similar idea was expressed in the exhibition "Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern
Netherlandish Art 1580-1620", held at the Rijksmuseum in 1993. The art historian J. Bruyn, in his essay for the catalog said that " It is hard not to associate birth of new Republic with the new art style as an expression of national identity” He then explains how the unique aspects of Dutch life in the Golden Age, such as the beginning of the art market and the lack of royal and church patronage, led the style of art now associated with the Dutch school.83 The exhibition explored the political situation in the Netherlands at the time when this new
"Dutch" art style was emerging in a similar way that the current exhibit in the Rijksmuseum does today . Some of the objects in the "Birth of the Republic" section were also included in this exhibition, This is not the only instance where the Rijksmuseum pairs a historical event 80 Ibidem, 140-1.
81 Smith 1999, 65-8) 82 Ibidem 1999, 65. 83 Bruyn in Luijten, 112
with contemporary developments in the fine arts. In fact this arrangement is used throughout the Golden Age exhibition, except in the Eregalerij.
The part of the exhibit dealing with William of Orange and the Dutch Revolt is small, so each object was chosen for maximum narrative value. Orange himself is represented through several objects including a portrait by Adriaen Thomasz Key (1544-1599),[Fig.4] There is also a full length portrait by Michiel Jansz. Van Mierevelt (1567-1641) of
Orange's son Maurits [Fig.5], who took charge of the revolt after his father was assassinated in 1584. These works of art introduce the characters in the narrative. Works such as The Allegory of the Abdication of Charles V in Brussles by Frans Francken the Younger
(1581-1642) [Fig.6] put the narrative in motion. The painting depicts Charles handing over power to his sons Ferdinand I, who acquired the Holy Roman Empire and Phillip II who acquired Spain and The Netherlands (including modern Belgium). Charles is surrounded by his followers and symbolic personifications of his lands. This painting is given special attention because it is used to connect the chronology of the Renaissance wing of the Rijksmuseum to the events of the Dutch Revolt. In the Renaissance exhibit Charles V is presented as being both culturally significant for the development of the arts in the Low Countries and politically significant in that he also unified the Low Countries under one authority, albeit not an authority that the Dutch would recognize as the "father of the country".84 The Francken canvas is the only object in the room that has an additional information card. These large, laminated cards are used throughout the museum to give in depth-information about important works of art. The card also relates this painting to Orange even though he is not in the painting. The Rijksmuseum's interpretation is that Orange may be present in the group of undifferentiated noblemen at the top right. In reality Orange was at the abdication ceremony though he does not appear in this scene. Charles' son Ferdinand I was in reality not at the ceremony yet he does appear in the scene. The card is intended to point out that it is indeed an allegory and not an accurate documentation of the event. Yet it also used as a mechanism for the Rijksmuseum to continue the narrative from the Renaissance exhibit.
The series of twelve paintings by Otto van Veen (1556-1629) displayed next to the portrait of Orange is important in connecting Orange as a person to the process of
nation building in the 16th century. As explained on the wall card, in 1613, the Dutch
parliament commissioned Otto van Veen to paint twelve paintings depicting the revolt of the Batavians against the Romans in AD 69 and 70. These were displayed in Binnenhof, the central government building in The Hague. In the early years of the Dutch Republic, many 84 Israel, 22. Discussion of the artistic significance of Burgundian court.
compared their own revolt against Spain to the Batavian uprising.85 This description brings to mind one of Smith's components of ethnies; a myth of common ancestry. The Batavians were a Germanic tribe that inhabited an area now located within the modern Netherlands during the time of the Roman Empire. Otto van Veen’s cycle of the Batavian revolt was related to renewed interest among scholars in historical accounts of the Batavians86 The parallels were clear. The Batavians were fighting the forces of a large empire that was occupying their lands. The Batavians were also led by a charismatic hero, Claudius Civilis (1st century AD).
Two very elegant pieces in the exhibit connect the Oranges to the cities and people of Holland. I want to bring special attention to this topic because the connection between local and national identity will be discussed in the next chapter. These are the "Ewer and Basin with scenes of land and sea battles during the Eighty Years’ War" by Adam van
Vianen (1568/9-1627) [Fig.8] and a guilt silver cup commemorating the solidarity between William of Orange and the city of Enkhuizen[Fig.9].The first object depicts William and Maurits' victories against the Spanish, including at Alkmaar and Leiden. The second object is on loan from a private collection and compliments the Van Vianen piece in that they draw the visitors eye with their luster. They are also related to each other in their functions as gifts from cities in Holland to members of the house of Orange.87 The pieces by Van Vianen are used to connect the "Birth of the Republic" section of the exhibit to the "Mannerism and Caravaggism" section. The two exhibits share a room but are separated by a partition. One section deals with the political climate of the times and the other the artistic climate. The Ewer and Basin are related to the portrait of Prince Maurits because in the portrait Maurits is wearing the suit of armor that he was given for his victory at the battle of Nieuwpoort.88 As I shall later discuss, the solidarity between the cities of Holland and William of Orange was, and is, a link between national and local, a relationship that is symbolized in the silver pieces in this exhibit.
The exhibit "Birth of the Republic/Mannerism and Caravaggism" is an example of how the Rijksmuseum pairs political events and artistic developments to form its chronology, as mentioned in chapter one. Through this chronology the museum pairs William of Orange with early nation building and the beginnings of a uniquely Dutch national character.
85 Wall text Rijksmusem room 2.1 86 Schama, 76.
87 The text next to the Enkhuizen cup indicates this. The ewer and basin are assumed to be gifts from the city of Amsterdam to Prince Maurits, Luijten, 451.
2.2 William of Orange in the Princenhof: The Biography
The Princenhof in Delft's exhibit on William of Orange is also chronological but instead of presenting him in terms of his importance to the Dutch nation,
the Princenhof's approach is biographical. The Princenhof tackles question like who William was as a person and what his personal relationships were like. In contrast to
the Rijksmuseum that only uses objects and text, the Princenhof uses a combination of objects, texts, video, audio, interactive screens and light projections to create a more
immersive experience. The impression one gets from this sense of immersion, and also from the information presented is that the Princenhof's goal is to humanize the national hero and give visitors a better understanding of who he was as a person.
The first room of the exhibition is called “Getting to know William”. This room features a timeline of the most important events of his life and career, including his birth and childhood in Germany and when he acquired the territory of Orange in France. There are three portraits of William showing him as a young man, as a statesman and on his death bed. His four wives are also mentioned early on in the exhibit. These ladies are mentioned nowhere else in the museums of Holland. While Orange’s military and political career are amply presented in other museums, they do not invite visitors to consider him as a child, as a husband or, indeed, as not even being Dutch!
Part of this humanization involves acknowledging that he was a flawed individual. From the Spanish point of view, he was a betrayer. In his home life he was given to excess and his constant absences led to a string of unhappy marriages, some of which ended tragically for the women. In a chapel like room there are four film screens where a kitchen cook, Phillip II, Willem's unhappy second wife and Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle
(1517-1586) talk about Orange. They question whether or not he could be trusted to stay loyal to the king, and whether or not he is motivated by the wants of the (Netherlandish) people or money. Phillip describes him as being very loyal and connected to the royal family. His second wife, Anne of Saxony (1544-1577), gives a detailed account of their luxurious
wedding and how, for a moment, she was very happy. Yet his constant absences made her feel abandoned. The kitchen maid tells stories of how he is often absent and given to indulgence when he is at home, not overtly of course because a servant would never speak ill of her master. She does, however, give a detailed account of each course of a meal being prepared for Orange, which contained over twenty dishes apiece.
In the room where Orange was assassinated in 1584, the room
