Exceptionally noteworthy specimens of interior carving of this period
are: Renaissance chimney-piece and a Gothic chimney-piece in the Louis
XIV style in the Antiquarian Museum, Utrecht; a chimney-piece dating
from the end of the seventeenth century, with a group of the
stamp-masters of the cloth-hall, by Karel de Moor, in the Municipal
Museum, Leyden; carved panelling in the council chamber, Woerden (1610);
carvings in the church at Venlo; panelling in the palace of the Princess
Marie on the Korte Voorhout, The Hague; a pulpit of 1685 in Broek in the
Waterland; and a monument in the church of St. Ursula, Delft, to William
of Orange, begun in 1616 by Hendrik de Keyser, and finished by his son
Peter.
The Rijks Museum possesses many examples of panelling, chimney-pieces,
and separate pieces of furniture; and several entire rooms have been
correctly arranged. Among these is a room with wall-panellings and
chimney-piece from Dordrecht (1626). The ceiling, supposed to be by Th.
van der Schuer (about 1678), represents Morning and Evening, and is from
the bedroom of Queen Mary of England, wife of William III, in the
Binnenhof, The Hague. The gilt leather hangings and other furniture in
this room are of the same date.
Another room contains a beautifully painted cylindrical ceiling of wood
from the apartment of Mary Stuart, wife of William II, Prince of Orange,
also in the Binnenhof. The panelling, chimney-piece, gilt leather
hangings and furniture are also of the seventeenth century.
A notable room is that taken from the house of Constantia Huygens in The
Hague, built by Jacob van Kampen. Blue silk is curiously used to
embellish the panelling. The ceiling, painted by Gérard de Lairesse
(1640–1711) represents Apollo and Aurora. This room is in the Louis XIV
style. A later fashion is, however, shown in the splendid “Chinese
Boudoir” of the latter part of the seventeenth century from the
Stadtholder’s palace at Leeuwarden.
Another room deserving attention is from a small hunting-lodge called
the Hoogerhuis, near Amersfoort, built about 1630 by Jacob van Kampen
and inhabited by him. The room is lighted by eight small windows, over
which paintings were hung. There is an interesting bedstead here,
ornamented with painted garlands, and with three compartments, beneath
the centred one of which is the Spanish motto, “_’El todo es nada_”
(Everything is nought).
The Dutch of the seventeenth century passed practically all their lives
at home. With the exception of merchants, students and men of affairs,
people rarely visited their friends and relatives in neighbouring towns.
As Pieter van Godewijck wrote:—
_Het reysen is een taeck nyet yder opgelegt,
En ’t is nyet al te veel en sonder blaêm gezegt,
Het huys is als een graf, waerin wy altyt wonen,
In ’t aerdsche tranendal._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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