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390 Route 43. AMSTERDAM. Ryks Museum:
‘No one has painted cocks and hens, ducks and drakes, and especially
chickens, so perfectly as Melchior d@’Hondecoeter. He paints such fami-
lies with insight and sympathy, as Italians paint the mystical Holy Fa-
mily; he expresses the mother-love of a hen as Raphael expresses the
mother-love of a Madonna. ... Of the eight pictures by Hondecoeter in
the Museum of Amsterdam, ‘the floating feather’ is the most famous.
The faintest breath of wind would blow it away’.
Burger. Musées de la Hollande.
403, 404. Jan de Baen, The ambassador Hieron. van Beverningk
and his wife (1670), in beautifully carved old frames (1640); 552.
Ferd. Bol, Abraham entertaining the angels, a large mural painting
from a private mansion at Utrecht.
Left wall: 954. W. de Geest, Count Ernst Casimir of Nassau;
1340. Th. de Keyser, Capt. Cloeck’s company (1682); above, 546.
FP, Bol, Instruction (1663).
*925. Gov. Flinck, Arquebusiers of Amsterdam celebrating in
the St. Joris-Doele (p. 389) the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia
(163/4 ft. by 82/3 ft.), the artist’s greatest work, painted in 1648.
The scene is divided into two groups: the figures to the left, nine in
all, are issuing from the guild-house; at their head, in black velvet, with
a blue sash, is Capt. Jan Huydecoper; to his right is Ensign Nicolaes van
Waveren. At the door is the artist himself. At the other side of the picture
are eleven figures, headed by Lieut. Frans van Waveren, dressed in black,
with a blue sash, who appears to be congratulating the captain.
A short flight of steps beside this picture ascends to an addition
made to the gallery in 1906, the three hundredth anniversary of
the birth of Rembrandt Harmens: van Ryn (p. lxii). In the ante-
room are some paintings, including 2552. J. Victors, Joseph inter-
preting dreams (4648); 1634. Claes Moyaert, The guest without a
wedding-garment; 1426. P. Lastman, Christ healing lepers. We
then enter the —
Rembrandt Rooms, in which are assembled all the works of the
great master belonging to the Museum, with the exception of the
two in the Van der Hoop and the Van de Poll bequests (pp. 396, 399).
Room I (243 a). **2016. Rembrandt's so-called Night Watch, the
master’s largest and most celebrated work (4113/4 by 141/, ft.), paint-
ed in 1642 for the Kloveniers-Doelen at Amsterdam. It represents
Captain Frans Banning Cocq’s company of arquebusiers emerging
from their guild—house (‘doele’) on the Singel. The scene is laid ina
lofty vaulted hall lighted only by windows above, to the left (not
visible to the spectator), an arrangement probably specially adapted
to the original position of the painting as it is toits present position.
Comp. p. Ixiii.
In the middle, in front, marches the captain in a dark brown, almost
black costume, at his side Lieutenant Willem van Ruitenburg in a yellow
buffalo jerkin, both figures in the full sunlight, so that the shadow of the
captain’s hand is distinctly traceable on the jerkin. On the right hand of
the captain are an arquebusier loading his weapon and two children,
of whom the one in front, a girl, has a dead cock hanging from her
girdle (perhaps one of the prizes). On a step behind them is Ensign Jan
Visser Cornelissen. The other side of the picture is pervaded with similar
life and spirit, from the lieutenant to the drummer Jan van Kamboort at |
