Objects, Commodities and Material Cultures in the Dutch Republic

Objects, Commodities and Material Cultures in the Dutch Republic

Exploring Early Modern Materiality Across Disciplines

How did objects move between places and people, and how did they reshape the Republic’s arts, cultures and sciences? ‘Objects’ were vitally significant for the early modern Dutch Republic, which is known as an early consumer society, a place famous for its exhaustive production of books, visual arts and scientific instruments. What happens when we push these objects and their materiality to the centre of our research? How do they invite us to develop new perspectives on the early modern Dutch Republic? And how do they contest the boundaries of the academic disciplines that have traditionally organized our scholarship? In Objects, Commodities and Material Cultures, the interdisciplinary community of specialists around the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of Early Modernity innovatively explores the diverse early modern world of objects. Its contributors take a single object or commodity as a point of departure to study and discuss various aspects of early modern art, culture and history: from natural objects to consumer goods, from knowledge instruments to artistic materials. The volume aims to unravel how objects have moved through regions, cultures and ages, and how objects impacted people who lived and worked in the Dutch Republic.
  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • 1 Introduction
      • Objects, Commodities and Material Cultures in the Dutch Republic Exploring Early Modern Materiality Across Disciplines
        • Feike Dietz and Judith Noorman
    • 2 The Anatomical Atlas
      • Govert Bidloo and Gerard de Lairesse’s Anatomia Humani Corporis (1685)
        • Weixuan Li and Lucas van der Deijl
    • 3 The Bullet and the Printing Press
      • Objects Celebrating the Battle of Gibraltar (1607)
        • Djoeke van Netten
    • 4 A Baluster
      • Amalia van Solms and the Global Trade in Japanese Lacquer
        • Saskia Beranek
    • 5 The Graphometer and the Book
      • How Petronella Johanna de Timmerman (1723/1724–1786) Merged Science and Poetry
        • Lieke van Deinsen and Feike Dietz
    • 6 Shells
      • Shaping Curiosity in the Dutch Republic
        • Hanneke Grootenboer, Cynthia Kok and Marrigje Paijmans
    • 7 The VOC Boardroom
      • A Forensic Investigation into the Built Environment
        • Gabri van Tussenbroek
    • 8 The Muller
      • Insights into Practical Artistic Knowledge through Re-Making Experiments
        • Maartje Stols-Witlox
    • 9 Blue Paper
      • Its Life, Origin, History and Artistic Exploration
        • Judith Noorman
    • Index
  • List of illustrations with photo credits
    • Figure 2.1 Abraham Bloteling, Frontispiece for Anatomia Humani Corpori, 1685, print, 478x303 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-BI-1870.
    • Figure 2.2 Pieter van Gunst after Gerard de Lairesse, Anatomical Study of the Back and Arm Muscles of a Woman (plate 28 from Anatomia Humani Corpori), 1685, print, 340x513 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-70.645.
    • Figure 2.3 Pieter van Gunst after Gerard de Lairesse, Anatomical Model of a Human Skeleton (plate 87 from Anatomia Humani Corpori), 1685, print, 276x443 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-70.703.
    • Figure 2.4 Pieter van Gunst after Gerard de Lairesse, Anatomical Model of a Human Skeleton (back side) (plate 88 from Anatomia Humani Corpori), 1685, print, 275x441 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-70.704.
    • Figure 2.5 Collaboration network of Jan van Dyck, Joannes van Someren and Hendrick and Dirck Boom.
    • Figure 3.1 Claes Jansz Visscher II after David Vinckboons I, The Battle at Gibraltar, 1607, print, 432x847 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-77.989.
    • Figure 3.2 Hendrick de Keyser, Sepulchral Monument for Jacob van Heemskerck, 1609, Amsterdam, Oude Kerk.
    • Figure 3.3 Frans Hogenberg (workshop), Naval Battle at Gibraltar 1607, 1607–1609, etching, 245x320 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-78.784-331.
    • Figure 3.4 Adam Willaerts, The Victory over the Spanish at Gibraltar, 1617, oil on canvas, 94,5x187,3 cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. SK-A-1387.
    • Figure 3.5 C.C. van Wieringen, Battle of Gibraltar 1607. Exploding of the Spanish Admiral’s Ship, c. 1621, oil on canvas, 136,8x187 cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. SK-A-2163.
    • Figure 4.1 Anonymous, Baluster from the Balustrade of Amalia van Solms, c.1640, wood and lacquer, height: 55cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. BK-2021-18.
    • Figure 4.2 Jan Matthysz after Pieter Jansz Post, Floor Plan of the Main Floor of the Oranjezaal at Huis ten Bosch, 1655, etching, 294x387 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-AO-12-96-5.
    • Figure 4.3 Maarten Loonstra, Jaap van Dijck, Marya Gasille and Adriaan Schoonens, Maquette of the Bedroom of Amalia van Solms in Huis ten Bosch, 1985, wood, textile, paper, and glass, Apeldoorn, Paleis Het Loo, inv.no. RL2277.
    • Figure 4.4 Govert Flinck, Allegory on the Memory of Frederik Hendrik, with a Portrait of Widow Amalia van Solms, 1654, oil on canvas, 307x189 cm, The Hague, Mauritshuis Museum and Prince William V Gallery (long-term loan from Rijksmuseum), inv.no. SK-A-86
    • Figure 4.5 Gerard van Honthorst, Portrait of Frederik Hendrik (1584–1647), Prince of Orange, his Wife Amalia van Solms (1602–1675) and their Three Youngest Daughters Albertina Agnes (1634–1696), Henrietta Catharina (1637–1708), and Maria (1642–1688), c. 1
    • Figure 5.1 Anonymous, Portrait of Petronella Johanna de Timmerman, 1786, Haarlem, Teylers Museum, inv.no. PP 1199.
    • Figure 5.2 Lavater’s silhouette machine, engraving included in: Over de physiognomie, vol. 2, Amsterdam 1781, (opposite to) 133, Amsterdam, Museum Allard Pierson, inv.no. O 61-7350-7352.
    • Figure 5.3 Title page of Eckhardt’s publication on the general graphometer, The Hague 1778, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-1993-14-1.
    • Figure 5.4 Jan Punt, Portrait of a man, in profile, engraving included in: Beschryving van een Algemeene Graphometer, The Hague 1778, plate 5, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-1993-14-16.
    • Figure 6.1. Cornelis de Man, The Curiosity Seller, 1660s, oil on canvas, 60x51 cm, Amsterdam, Bruil & Brandsma Works of Art.
    • Figure 6.2 Roemer Visscher, ‘Tis misselick ware een geck zijn gelt aen leijt (It is crazy what some people spend their money on)’, in: Idem, Sinnepoppen, Amsterdam 1614, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. BI-1893-3539-10.
    • Figure 6.3 Dirck van Rijswijck, Panel with inlaid text: de heer Nicolas Verburch, 1671, 22,9x33,3 cm (depth: 2cm), Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. BK-KOG-2456.
    • Figure 6.4 Simon Frisius after Jan van de Velde I, Schrijfvoorbeeld met admiraalsschip, in: Spieghel der schrijfkonste, inden welcken ghesien worden veelderhande geschriften met hare fondamenten ende onderrichtinghe uutghegeven, 1608, Amsterdam, Rijksmuse
    • Figure 6.5 Peter Paul Rubens, The Discovery of Purple by Hercules’s Dog, c. 1636, oil on panel, 28x34 cm, Bayonne, Musée Bonnat-Helleu, inv. no. CM 3.
    • Figure 6.6 Adriaen Gaesbeeck, Young Man in his Study, c. 1640–1650, oil on panel, 100x76 cm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. SK-A-113.
    • Figure 7.1 St Paul’s monastery with orchard on Cornelis Anthonisz’s 1544 bird’s-eye view map, Amsterdam City Archive.
    • Figure 7.2 Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal/corner Oude Hoogstraat. The armoury from 1555, before demolition in 1890, Amsterdam City Archive, inv.no. OSIM00002003729.
    • Figure 7.3 The armoury on Pieter Bast’s bird’s-eye view map from 1597 and Balthasar Florisz van Berckenrode’s from 1625, Amsterdam City Archive.
    • Figure 7.4 The East India House on a print by Claes Jansz Visscher, shortly after 1606, Amsterdam City Archive, inv.no. ANWU01468000006.
    • Figure 7.5 The building seam between the 1606 and 1633 sections as visible in the courtyard.
    • Figure 7.6 The building volumes of the complex, with the armoury in the foreground, and the oldest phase of the East India House to the left behind. Hoogstraat is on the right.
    • Figure 7.7 The vaulted cellar of the East India House, built in 1606.
    • Figure 7.8 Impression of the roof construction of the East India House, dendrochronologically dated 1606.
    • Figure 7.9 Mention of the enlargement of the great hall, 1660, The Hague, Native Archives, Archive of the United East India Company, inv.nos. 236, 226.
    • Figure 7.10 The three boardroom locations suggested in the literature.
    • Figure 7.11 William V takes his seat as chief administrator of the United East India Company in the Great Hall of the East India House, 1 June 1768. Drawing by Simon Fokke, 1771, Amsterdam City Archives, inv.no. 010001000758.
    • Figure 7.12 The reconstructed VOC boardroom, seen to the west. Condition as in 2022.
    • Figure 7.13 In the front room, a spiral staircase led from the bel-etage to the attic. In the attic, the staircase is still present; on the second floor, the stairwell can be seen in the joisting.
    • Figure 8.1 Abraham Bosse, A Painter in His Studio, c. 1667, etching, 263x186 mm, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv.no. 2012.136.173.
    • Figure 8.2 Plate 1 from Bouvier’s Manuel des Jeunes Artistes et Amateurs en Peinture, Paris 1827, showing three types of mullers (A, O and Q).
    • Figure 8.3 A stone muller that is still covered with a crust of old paint, dated to the eighteenth century by its owner: The Table Gallery. Dimensions: 13,5x27,5 cm (diameter x height).
    • Figure 8.4 Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Cut-Out Trompe-l’Oeil Easel with a Painter’s Palette and a Fruit Piece, 1670–1672, oil paint on wood, 226x123 cm (h x w), Statens Museum for Kunst Copenhagen, inv.no. KMS5.
    • Figure 8.5 Three paints consisting of lead white ground in linseed oil, observed with a microscope at ten times magnification. The paints have been ground for increasing lengths of time and have been applied with a brush to a plastic sheet (Melinex).
    • Figure 9.1 Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Trompe-l’Oeil Letter Rack with Letters, a Comb, and a Single Sheet of Blue Paper, 1675, oil on canvas, 41x34,5 cm, Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, inv.no. WRM 2828.
    • Figure 9.2 Relief sculpture above the entrance to the Rasphuis.
    • Figure 9.3 Anonymous, The Saw-House or Rasphuis, 1664, etching, 114x135 mm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv.no. RP-P-AO-26-2-1.
    • Figure 9.4 Hugo Binoit, Still Life with Strawberries and Sugar in Blue Paper, 1635, private collection.
    • Figure 9.5 Hendrick Goltzius, Landscape with Waterfall, c. 1597–1600, woodcut on blue paper with deck paint, 112x146 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-10.313.
    • Figure 9.6 Hendrick Goltzius, Landscape with Waterfall, c. 1597–1600, woodcut, 113x145 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-10.315.
    • Figure 9.7 Anonymous, Academic Nude, c. 1640–1670, red chalk over graphite, 315x195 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-T-2015-53-1.
    • Figure 9.8 Anonymous, Academic Nude on Blue Paper, c. 1640–1670, black and white chalk on blue paper, 360x225 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-T-2015-53-6.
    • Figure 9.9 Formerly attributed to Jacob Esselens, Bonfires in Commemoration of the Peace of Rijswijk, 6 November 1697, chalk, black ink and deck paint on blue paper, 264x438 mm, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-T-00-326.

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