rijksmuseum (95/365c)

spent pretty much all day at the rjieksmuseum: as long as possible. we weren't the only ones who had that idea. so many amazing works and there were even proper descriptions on the wall.

i loved all their expressions here
better than the kids (early twenties?) who got here and said,
"i hate portraits, it's just pictures of people
they're so boring!"

father and son with bacchus

we had sushi from a grocery store for lunch and sat on a park bench trying not to share a crumb with the pigeons. originally we would have gone to another museum after lunch, but that was optimistic. there was plenty to see in the rjieksmuseum, and besides, we had just figured out the floorplan (we had gotten lost here too!). on the walk home we got lost too. every single canal and bridge looks the same and you swear you are walking in circles. we finally oriented ourselves by remembering seeing a flamingo decoration in a window on the train in the morning, and seeing a local underwear shop that we were sure of the side of the street it was on. in the evening we were too tired for anything else. we tried to watch a movie but we didn't even make it to the end.

some bonus photos, just things i liked extra much at the museum:

Chandelier woman (Leuchterweibchen) with a coat of arms, anonymous, c. 1525
"The meaning of the curious combination of a woman with a coat of arms and a suspended deer antler are not clear. Such objects were found in town halls and thus must have had an official significance. They owe their German name Leuchterweibchen (chandelier woman) to the custom of sticking candles onto the antler points."

"Anna Roemers Visscher engraved one of her own poems on a wine glass as a gift for Constantijn Huygens. The verses contain both a lament and a request: her pen has run dry, and her mind has turned to rust. She asks Huygens to fetch her some water from Helicon – home of the Muses – so that her ink will flow freely and she can write poems once again."

a flamingo in the shadows of a tapestry

Self-portrait, Johan Gregor van der Schardt, c. 1573 terracotta (clay material)
"To make this small bust – it is half life-size – the sculptor had to resort to all kinds of tricks with a mirror. Van der Schardt did not portray himself frontally, but with his head turned sideways, as if to avoid looking at the viewer. "

small detail of an enormous painting
David Leeuw with his Family, Abraham van den Tempel, 1671

NOT a marble relief - it's an OIL painting!
Allegory of the Sciences by Gerard de Liaresse (1641-1711)
"The merchant Philips de Flines was a true connoisseur. He commissioned Gerard de Lairesse to decorate his canal house on the Amsterdam Herengracht. The artist made paintings in black and white, in imitation of marble reliefs. They depicted the virtues of a cultured society whose obligations included the promotion of the sciences."

small detail of a dolls house, including miniature plates wicker basket, and even scissors on the table