Amsterdamsters, 7: Sama Sebo and the Van Gogh Museum

Tuesday, showers delayed our leaving the campground until noon, so we began the day with a lunch-time rice table at Sama Sebo, an Indonesian restaurant just north of the Rijksmuseum (and across from the Tesla showroom). After lunch, we walked through the gale to the Van Gogh Museum. We might have skipped it, having visited it in 2013, but hey, it was free now that our Museumkaartes have already paid for themselves. After the Van Gogh and another trip to M&S, we headed home for an administrative day in the campground. After two weeks, we'll be ready finally to leave Amsterdam. Oh, fuller coverage of the Van Gogh Museum is at my 2013 post, http://roadeveron.blogspot.nl/2013/06/van-gogh-museum.html.

Sama Sebo

Interior

Lunch; OK as a sampler; much prefer Thai

Me, at a rice table in Amsterdam, 1979; first really spicy food
I'd ever had...

Passing by the Rijksmuseum en route to the Van Gogh

The Koncertegebouw...I never seem to get any closer than this

Rijksmuseum again, not up closer

Inside the VGM; they too have gone to the "no fotos" policy

Looking down from the 3rd floor, park-side: they're building
a colossal new entry; it will move the long lines off the sidewalk
and street out front 

"What's this on the floor?!"

The one foto I wanted to get...Vincent's take on Crebain from
Dunland...prescient..."Spies of Saruman!"

Amsterdamsters, 6: The Willet-Holthuysen House

Vicki wanted to see the interior of one of the great canal-side houses, and the Willet-Holthuysen House, just across the canal from the Hermitage, filled the bill. It is a 17th century house, donated to the nation in 1895, after the Willet/Holthuysen couple died without issue. I think the historical society is still trying to decide whether it should be restored to 17th (famous) or 19th century (not so famous) standards. But it's still an interesting visit. The Wllet/Holthuysens were artsy collectors, and some of their posessions remain.

Canal-side entry

Entry hall

Ball room

Dining room

Pantry above dining room

First of several large withdrawing/display rooms

Nice little room displaying travels, mementos

In another display room

Canal-side view; water feature

Back-side view; the Willet-Holthuysens were definitely
Francophiles

Boudoir

Top of the staircase, Paris and some goddesses;
life-sized

More display

Ditto, overlooking the garden; nice place, Herengracht

On the way home, passing by the Flower Market, with this
one spectacular stall...

Amsterdamsters, 5: Amsterdam Hermitage

Monday we began really exercising our Museumkaarte powers, visiting first the Amsterdam Hermitage and then the Willet-Holthuysen House.

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) is one of the world's great museums; we hope to see it someday maybe after a regime change. Anyhow, the holdings of the Hermitage are so vast--it can display only 5% at a time--that it has decided to set up Hermitage-outposts in other countries..Amsterdam's outpost is the first and still the largest. There are only temporary exhibits, but they were very well worth seeing, especially the Napoleon/Josephine/Alexander exhibit, which was spectacular for the authenticity of its items (e.g., N's saber from the Nile, J's dresses). Alas, there was a no fotos policy in force, so I have nothing much to show for the visit. But, of  note: there was a bit of a triangle going here, among N, J, and Alexander, and Josephine was a big-time art collector; N was her curator. The other exhibition we saw was one of the great group portraits, as it were, from the Dutch Golden Age. Night Watch. There were a large hall full of them...and then an enchanting little contemporary parody. I did not want to like this museum, but ended up liking it very much.

Modest entrance to the Amsterdam Hermitage: it's in a large
historic quadrangle that was once an old folks home; now
completely renovated and with room for more

The Napoleonic exhibition

Thus

My one clandestine foto from the N/J/A exhibit::from Josephine's
collection...I never, ever, pass up a Claude Lorraine

Moving right along now to another exhibit, group portraits
from the Dutch Golden Age

Thus

And thus

Women in black

Hand signals

A contemporary photographer. Taco Anema, came up with the
idea of juxtaposing these with fotos of today's non-profit
boards...of which there is a large and interesting exhibit...and
of which I'll post just two close to my heart...here is the board
of the Netherlands Federation for the Sciences and Humanities
(humanities get more respect in your more mature countries)

And the board of the Association of Sinti, Roma, and Caravan
Dwellers in the Netherlands

Moving right along from the Hermitage to our next destination,
we again pass the Rembrandt statue and his Night Watch friends

And the lobby of the Pathe Touschinski theatre, which we must
tour next time we are here

Amsterdamsters, 4: At The Rijksmuseum

All day rain was forecast Sunday, so, like everyone else here, we elected to spend it at the national museum. They have finally completed all the renovations underway on our last few visits to the Rijksmuseum, and it was a bit disorienting to see everything in its proper place. All the biggies now are on the main grand hall--improving tour bus traffic immensely, one assumes--but one has to be really dedicated to track down that one obscure Avercamp or de Smooch he/she has come to Amsterdam to see. Whatever. I have posted about the Rijksmuseum before, probably more than once, and most of the biggies can be seen at http://roadeveron.blogspot.nl/2012/07/rijksmuseum-i.html. For the present longish post I will focus on some of the lesser works and on some of the lesser intricacies of art history and criticism.

The Medieval/Renaissance collection starts right next to
the bathrooms/lockers, so we started there...above, what
would normally be called a Tree of Jesse is here,
apparently, a Column of Jesse; rock hard...

In this massacre of something or other scene, art historian Vicki notes that Mary 
Janes  evidently were popular in 15th century Dutch painting 

Smirking Madonna..."I'm the Queen of Heaven! I'm the Queen
of Heaven!"

A polychrome carving of the the Marriage at Cana or the Dinner at Emmaus or
whatever...note that the earthly Jesus, in an unusual depiction, is here wearing a
hat

One of the Weepers, little sculptures some queen or other had
made and arrayed around her tomb; each of the Weepers was
one of her children; Rebecca, Rachel, note

Muy importante...enlarge and study...this is the first European painting
depicting the Encounter--Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest 
of America, Jan Mostaert, 1555

In the Hall of Model Ships...a whole fleet of masterpieces

In the Hall of Doll Houses, Vicki studies...

The nursery...two sets of twins! One for the wet nurse, one for
the dry nurse...

I never, ever, pass up a Claude Lorrain

Now we are in the Grand Hall of the Biggies, I mean, of Honor, watching other
people mostly

OK, so you're one of the city's rich and powerful and you and your club engage 
this painter to do a group portrait, the whole point of which is for you and your 
friends to be able to recognize yourselves and point and say, Yup, that's me, way 
back in 1642; only the painter guy is really more interested in action, emotion, 
brushwork, light and shadow...it was years after The Night Watch before Rembrandt 
received another portrait commission

Men in black

In the Vermeer room, off the Grand Hall; our favorite, the woman reading the letter
(with the map), was on loan in New York (a former Dutch colony)

The Grand Hall of Honor

So I am marveling at this over-sized Massacre of the Innocents, and especially its
Caravaggio-style composition, featuring, um, male buttocks, when Vicki notes...

That we are in fact  in the Caravaggio room (sorry, it's a running gag)

Fishing for Souls...Protestant-style on the left, Catholic- on the right

A favorite Avercamp winter scene, favorite in part for its Breughelesque
scope and realism (details on request)

And thus ended another great day at one of the world's great museums; back out
into the rain...