Abstract
The decoration plan of the seventeenth-century City Hall of Amsterdam, the current Palace on Dam Square, is much more complex, more coherent and more imbued with meaning than has been assumed until now. This research into the iconographic and programmatic elements in the decoration program, designed by architect Jacob van
... read more
Campen (1596-1659), builds on previous studies, like K. Fremantle in 1959. New analysis of the sculptures, paintings, models, prints, architectural and cosmographic elements of the building and the connection with poems and other texts offers new insights.
The foundation stone was laid in 1648, the town hall was inaugurated in 1655.
The City Hall of Amsterdam was built as a temple of peace and prosperity on the occasion of the end of the Eighty Years’ War. It was the pinnacle of the oeuvre of architect Jacob van Campen. All his building projects reflect his search for aesthetic, allegorical and metaphysical unity, translated into an iconographic program. This also applies to the new City Hall of Amsterdam, whose decoration plan highlights a microcosm, or a reflection of the world beyond.
In 1959 art historian Katharine Fremantle discovered the great influence of Cesare Ripa’s encyclopedia Iconologia, translated from Italian in 1644. However, she overlooked part of the decoration programme. Iconographic and programmatic aspects turn out to be even more complex and more solid in coherence than we know thanks to Fremantle. Traces thus lead to the circle of scholars to which Van Campen belonged. Among them were 'homo universalis' Constantijn Huygens, cartographer and city administrator Joan Blaeu and poet Joost van den Vondel. They were inspired by the search for the key to God's creation. The combination of Biblical themes with motifs from Greek and Roman antiquity and the new knowledge of the earth and the cosmos, in short, the state of science at that time, come together in the decoration plan of the City Hall.
Van Campen’s collaboration with sculptor Artus Quellinus and the most important painters of his time – from the studios of Rembrandt and Rubens – produced magnificent works of art. Together, these form the perfect harmony in an iconographic coherence with their placement and proportion.
After Van Campen’s sudden departure from the building project in 1654, his hermetically designed plan was deviated from. A statement presents itself on the drawing board, the place where he, as creator, has had the overview and supervision in arranging the ‘whole and all’. Symmetry goes awry and mutual relationships are lost.
It is shown that both science and religion play a major role in the design. The combination of biblical themes with motifs from Greek and Roman antiquity and the new knowledge of the earth and the cosmos determine the decoration plan of the building. In this 'Whole and All', the Creator implicitly plays the leading role.
In 1655 – seven years after the foundation stone was laid – Van Campen's creation was no longer fully understood. Everard Meyster formulates:
“Who shall truly understand the work and him? And who the royal Amsterdam Palace,
Say, who can?”
Despite what we consider to be a primarily bourgeois and republican administrative building, God ultimately plays the leading role. Vondel, poet of Amsterdam, simply states:
"Heavenly founded, denounced by Kampen's mind."
It is shown that both science and religion play a major role in the design. The combination of biblical themes with motifs from Greek and Roman antiquity and the new knowledge of the earth and the cosmos determine the decoration plan of the building. In this Whole and All, the Creator implicitly plays the leading role.
show less
