DOCUMENTATION | Exhibitions: 1648 - War and Peace in Europe |
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| Essay Volumes > Tome II: Art and culture |
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MARLOES HUISKAMP
"For the honour and reputation of this city and the glory of its scions": War and Peace in the town and city halls of the Low Countries |
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I. Introduction
On 13 February 1629 the burgomasters (there were several) of the city of Haarlem caused the following record to be made in their journal: 'Master [painter] Hendrick Vroom agrees and promises to make the piece of the city of Haarlem namely the battle on the Haarlemmermeer accurately and faithfully for the honour and reputation of this city and the glory of its scions ...'. The result of this commission was Vroom's great painting of the battle on the Haarlemmermeer (1573), now in the Rijksmuseum. [1]
This reference in the Haarlem city archives makes clear the purpose of such a municipal commission: the painting had to be a faithful representation of the historical facts and was intended to glorify the city and its inhabitants. In this particular case it is conspicuous that the depicted battle between the Spaniards and the 'Beggars' did not turn out well for the Dutch: they were obliged to retreat, as a result of which it became impossible to maintain supplies of food to Haarlem, then under siege by Spanish forces, so that the city was forced to surrender, with all the terrible consequences which that entailed. Evidently the mere fact that the fleet and the people of Haarlem had stood up to the Spanish enemy so bravely was reason enough for the city council to have the battle recorded for posterity, even so many years after the event.
Haarlem was not the only place to acquire works of art that were intended to be a lasting memorial to the glorious yet often also wretched fortunes of the town during the Eighty Years War and a monument, too, albeit to a lesser extent, to the Treaty of Münster which followed it. These works were often hung in the town or city hall, but in other public buildings too, such as the Lakenhal (Clothmakers Hall) and Saaihal (Serge Hall) in Leiden, in the halls used by the civil guards or militias of Alkmaar, Amsterdam and Antwerp, and in a variety of churches, municipal authorities and other local institutions would hang pictures to remind those using the buildings of the war and the peace. Here I shall be concentrating on the works that could be seen in the town and city halls of the Northern and Southern Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century and in the seventeenth. In particular, I shall examine the types and functions of the images.
II. Scenes Relating to Concrete Events
1. The States General (i.e. Dutch) side
In the Northern Netherlands the principal events of the Eighty Years War all took place in the initial stages of the conflict. In these years of rebellion against Spanish rule an active role was played by the towns, which from the early 1570s onwards defected, one by one, to the rebel side. The Spaniards responded to this with punishment raids and sieges calculated to ensure that the position was again reversed. In towns like Naarden (1572), Haarlem (1573), Alkmaar (1573), Leiden (1574) and Oudewater (1575) Spanish raids and sieges exacted a heavy toll, and it is precisely these momentous events of the first half of the Eighty Years War that town governments caused to be memorialized in works of art.
One of the places most severely affected was Naarden. In December 1573 it suffered terrible retribution at the hands of Spanish troops for the fact that it had allowed Dutch troops within its walls. Hundreds of civilians were brutally murdered, houses were razed, the town's walls torn down. Over thirty years later, in 1604, an unknown artist painted a picture of these events which now hangs in the town hall. [2] In it we see a bird's-eye view of the town engulfed in flames. Silhouetted against the horizon and in the middle ground there are Spanish cavalrymen. There are no known seventeenth-century sources to document the origins of this piece, but the prominence given to the town's coat of arms and its fortifications, rebuilt at the end of the sixteenth century, appear to confirm that it was painted to a commission from the town itself. So too does the text of the inscription, which commemorates above all the suffering of the civilian population. [3] The circumstance that the rebuilding of the town hall itself, which was destroyed in the fire, was completed shortly before 1604, the year in which the picture was painted, also adds plausibility to the theory that the work was commissioned by the town.
Another famous event was the the relief of Leiden in 1574, following a siege by the Spaniards lasting several months. It is striking to what lengths the city council went to keep memories of this alive. At the city hall, siege and relief were commemorated in three paintings and a memorial plaque on the front of the building. For the Saaihal a series of seven paintings was ordered, one of which made a direct link between the flourishing of the serge industry - after the relief of the city - and the cessation of hostilities. Stained-glass windows were ordered for churches both in and outside the city. [4] However, the earliest public commission - so far as we know and so far as that term may be deemed accurate - was a short poem which 'those of the Court' caused to be affixed to the Sint Jeroensbrug (St Jerome's Bridge) over the Vliet, the waterway up which the Beggars had sailed into Leiden. It went as follows:
Men was in groot verdriet,
Want Eten wasser niet,
En 'tvolck van honger schreyden.
Ten laetst Godt nedersiet,
En sondt deur dese VLIET,
Broot, Spijs, en dranck in LEYDEN.
(And all were much distressed / For there was naught to eat /
And the people from hunger cried / Then at last God looked down /
And sent through this VLIET /
Bread, food and drink to LEYDEN). [5]
The oldest work of art in the city hall was the tapestry that the city ordered from the weaver Joost Jansz Lanckaert of Delft in February 1587. [6] It is a map of a large part of Holland showing the military position during the siege and relief of the city. The second work was a painting by Claes Isaacsz van Swanenburgh, no longer extant, which hung in the burgomasters' room. It showed, according to city chronicler Jan Orlers, 'the story of King Pharaoh in the Red Sea and the leading of the children of Israel into the desert'. Orlers points out that 'this [was] rather apposite in view of the unprecedented relief of the City of Leiden'. In an inscription appearing in the painting, too, the trials and tribulations that the people of Leiden had had to endure were compared with those of the tribe of Israel in the Old Testament. [7] It was thanks to the intervention of God that both Israel and Leiden had been saved from starvation. Lastly, in 1615 a painting by Pieter van Veen was hung, again in the burgomasters' chamber, showing the Beggar fleet sailing into the city and the liberated but starving citizenry hurling themselves on herring and bread (plate 1). [8] The following poem was inscribed on the frame:
Wanneer den honger-noot met spijse werd verdreven /
Verandert druck in vreucht d'aenstaende doot int leven /
Dit heeft dees stadt beprouft tot goodts eer haer geluck /
Gelijck gij siet ten deel in dit geschildert stuck
(When starvation is dispelled with food /
Anguish turns to joy, imminent death to life /
This has this town tasted to God's glory and its good fortune /
As you may see in part in this painted piece.)
Leiden is unique in the diversity and number of its commemorative paintings. The city's governors appear to have deliberately used the traumatic events, which not only caused many deaths but also indirectly led to the city's subsequent economic flourishing and the establishment of its famous university, for purposes of municipal propaganda. [9] In other towns and cities the works of art with which these historic events were commemorated were usually confined to just one picture, often commissioned years afterwards: Cornelis Vroom's painting of The Battle on the Haarlemmermeer (1573), painted in 1629, is a case in point. [10] As late as 1650, i.e. after the conclusion of the Treaty of Münster and the Peace of Westphalia, the city fathers of Oudewater ordered a painting of the great fire of Oudewater during the Spanish siege of August 1575 (plate 2). [11] As in the Naarden picture, the town - parts of it in flames - is seen in a bird's-eye view, but here the elaboration of the event is more careful. In the left foreground we see a tent, part of the besiegers' camp, with a cavalryman in front of it; in the background other tents can be seen. In the middle ground there are cannons, and soldiers advance in battle order towards the right where the people of Oudewater are under attack. Inside the town walls, too, there are civilians being chased by Spanish soldiers. In the bottom right-hand corner, part of the picture, there is a piece of paper with the following inscription:
OVDEWATER
onder philp. II Co: van hisp. door
beleit van Hierges belegert den 19 Jvly
is nae dapperlyck beschieten ende
grouwlijck gevechs stormenderhant ingenomen
Soldaten. Burgeren vrouwen en kinderen wreedlijck
vermoort: ende de stadt verbrant Opden 7 augustius 1575.
(OUDEWATER
under Philip II King of Spain under
the command of Hierges [Gilles de Berlaymont, Baron of Hierges] besieged on 19 July
was after heavy bombardment and
terrible fighting taken by storm,
soldiers civilians women and children being cruelly
murdered: and the town burnt on the 7th August 1575.)
At the top of this paper, as a salient detail, the artist shows us the blood of the citizenry of Oudewater which had flowed in such abundance.
But while the town governments of the Northern Netherlands were still ordering paintings of episodes from the early Revolt half-way through the century, there are very few representations of events from the second half of the war. We shall examine why this is so later on.
2. The Spanish side
The governors of towns sympathic to Spain also commissioned works to commemorate the events of the first half of the Eighty Years War. These paintings are little different from those of the enemy.
On 14 October 1595 the town of Lier was attacked by Dutch troops. The town found itself unable to beat off the siege, and forces from nearby places, in particular militia from Malines (Mechelen) and Antwerp, had to come to its assistance. Together they succeeded in relieving the town. In Lier itself these events were memorialized in a painting (plate 3). The town is again seen in a bird's-eye view. There is fighting in the streets, but all is well: delivery is on its way, in the foreground. This painting has two inscriptions, one in Dutch and the other in Latin. [12] The first of these reads:
Veerthien October Lyer In groot treueren was
doir Calvinus gebroet diese quamen benouwen
Goidts assistencie door hulpe vande[n] nagebuere[n] ras
dede[n] hen de Stadt v[er]late[n] en hoofden krouwen.
1595.
(On the Fourteenth of October Lier was in great trouble
due to Calvin's vermin which came to besiege it.
God's assistance through the aid of the neighbours
soon made them leave the town and scratch their heads. 1595)
The addition 'S.P.Q.L. (magistrature and people of Lier) in the Latin inscription, the presence of the town's coat of arms - together with that of Spain - and the bird's-eye view of the town all point to this having been a public commission.
The 'neighbours' referred to in the inscription, particularly those in Malines, were evidently themselves much pleased with their rescue mission, for their city governors too ordered a painting of the relief of Lier. Although the general concept of this work by Jan Ghuens the Younger is similar to that of the piece in Lier itself, the militiamen in the foreground are here larger and painted with greater care - which is logical, considering who commissioned the painting. [13]
An anonymous work in the town hall at Nieuwpoort commemorates the siege of that town by Maurice's troops in 1600. [14] Although the famous Battle of Nieuwpoort, shown in the foreground, ended - just - with a victory for the Dutch, Maurice was unable to take the town too. The painting shows us both battle and siege, but it is the latter event that is recalled by the inscriptions. 'THIS IS THE SIEGE OF NIEUWPOORT', we read on the canvas, and:
MAVRVS BESETTEN ZWAER
HEEFT ONS ZEERE DOEN SNEVEN
EER ALBERTVS VOORWAER
ONS HEEFT ONTSET GHEGHEVEN.
(MAURITS' HEAVY SIEGE / MADE US SORELY TREMBLE /
ERE ALBERT FORSOOTH / DID GIVE US RELIEF)
Here again, the inscription - with the reference to 'us' - and the type of picture - the town in a bird's-eye view - indicate a commission by the town. [15]
In the town hall of Venlo there are three paintings which were incontrovertibly painted on commission from a municipal government kindly disposed towards the Spanish. Two of these depict events from the Eighty Years War, namely the failed sieges by Dutch forces of 1597 and 1606. The third shows a siege from the beginning of the sixteenth century. [16] All three works were ordered in about 1613 for the town hall's council chamber from the local painter Frans Everts. This time the sieges concerned are not shown in bird's-eye perspective, though the decor for the events is a kind of city view. Besides the siege, each of these paintings, which are divided vertically into two, shows a scene from the Old Testament: for example, alongside the siege of Venlo in 1597 we see the story of Esther preventing the massacre of the Jewish people, and with the siege of 1606 we are shown the story of Judith, the courageous widow who saves her native city of Bethulia from its Assyrian besiegers when she decapitates their leader Holofernes. The verses on the frames underline the parallels between the events at Venlo and those in the Bible. Thus the inscription on the frame of the second painting reads:
ALS SESTHEEN HONDERT SES MEN SCHRIEF
VENLO VAN GOD BEHALDEN BLIEF
GELICK DOER HOLOFERNES DOET
BETHULIEN OUCK IS BEHOET
(IN SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND SIX / VENLO WAS DELIVERED BY GOD
JUST AS BY HOLOFERNES' DEATH / BETHULIA TOO WAS SAVED.)
References such as these to Old Testament parallels were not uncommon in the seventeenth century, particularly on the Protestant side. However, these paintings from Venlo show that Catholics too would occasionally make comparisons of this sort.
The sieges of Venlo were commemorated not only in these paintings but also in processions: Venlo continued to be in Spanish hands for some years afterwards, and hence remained Catholic. In 1610 the annual St Willibrord's Day procession was moved to 2 November, the date on which the attack of 1606 had taken place. Later 'the scenes of the siege and treachery' were even carried in the processions. [17] It is reasonable to suppose that these were the paintings by Everts.
The paintings in Lier, Malines, Nieuwpoort and Venlo show what were, from the Dutch point of view, sieges that had failed. It would seem logical that the brief period in which most Southern towns and cities were on the side of the Revolt should be almost wholly unrepresented in the town and city halls of the region. Here, Spanish rule was soon re-established, so that the time in which 'pro-Beggar' works of art might have been produced was short - and even if such works once existed, they would almost certainly have been removed by the pro-Spanish authorities. At the same time it must be borne in mind that this need not necessarily have been the case: witness the extant 'Spanish' examples just referred to in what later became the pro-Dutch city of Venlo. (Though admittedly in the seventeenth century Venlo was in Dutch hands for only a short time.) [18] On the other hand there is also evidence to show that pro-Spanish authorities did indeed do their best to erase the traces of the Revolt in the towns and cities of the Southern Netherlands. This is what happened in Antwerp, for example. In December 1584 the city fathers, then predisposed towards the Dutch side, purchased from Frans Francken a portrait of William of Orange. This was then hung in the Stateroom of the city hall, but when Antwerp fell into Spanish hands less than a year later it was simply taken down and replaced with a portrait of the city's conqueror Alessandro Farnese. [19] Two years later, in 1587, the statue of the legendary local hero Brabo which was part of the decoration on the façade of Antwerp city hall was replaced, at the insistence of the Jesuits, by a figure of the Virgin Mary, the city's patron saint. The statue of Brabo had been placed there in 1566 and can be linked to anti-Spanish feelings of the time. Brabo was regarded as the first Duke of Brabant and his figure was thus a reference to the rights and privileges of Brabant that were then under threat. A figure of the Virgin had decorated the façade of the city hall ever since the Middle Ages, and the return of the city's patron saint also symbolized the return to the old situation. [20]
In Bruges, too, efforts were made to eradicate reminders of the Revolt. The painting Allegory of Peace in the Netherlands in 1577 (plate 4) by Petrus Claeissens the Younger was probably commissioned by the city hall there. [21] The personifications depicted include those of the Union, Peace, the Seven Provinces and the States General, and the painting symbolizes the peace envisaged by the States General after the Pacification of Ghent (1576). It was probably painted during the period in which the Austrian Habsburg prince Don John was governor and accepted the Pacification, under certain conditions, in what was called the Eternal Edict (1577): his arms occupy a prominent place on the triumphal chariot to be seen in the painting, in addition to which the Provinces are led by Austria. The arms of William of Orange were also originally to be found on the chariot, on the right, but they were overpainted, probably in about 1583-4, when in many of the towns and cities of the South he had become persona non grata and those in power no longer wished to be reminded of him and the Revolt. [22]
Pictures of reconquests by 'Spanish' generals such as Alessandro Farnese and archduke Albert of Austria were only rarely to be found in the town and city halls of the Southern Netherlandish places concerned. One exception, possibly, is the Allegory on the Second Blossoming of Antwerp after the Reconquest in 1585 by Alessandro Farnese by Hans Vredeman de Vries, a painting that for years hung in the city hall of Antwerp. In the middle of the painting we see Farnese presenting Philip II with the arms of Antwerp in token of the city's return to Spanish rule. The painting, with its personifications of virtues and all sorts of allegorical figures, and its picture of the port bustling with activity, seems to be calculated to persuade the people of Antwerp of the conciliatory attitude of the Spanish authorities and convince them that they are heading for a prosperous future. [23] It is not known exactly when the painting found its way into the city hall, but its content points to it having been a public commission, [24] albeit perhaps a case of Habsburg rather than municipal propaganda.
In the town and city halls of the Southern Netherlands, as in those of the Republic, pictures of events from the second half of the Eighty Years War were unusual. One of the rare exceptions is The Battle of Kallo by Gillies and Bonaventura Peeters (plate 5). The city government of Antwerp purchased this painting for its Stateroom in 1639. [25] For once the scene is not a siege but a battle which took place to the north of Antwerp in 1638. The Dutch army which had attempted to take the forts on the Scheldt had suffered a defeat at the hands of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. He appears - not particularly prominently - in the middle foreground of the picture. Clearly Antwerp was far from unhappy with this Dutch defeat.
3 The significance of these paintings
In the paintings we have looked at in the foregoing, both pro-Dutch and pro-Spanish town governments had their own history recorded for posterity. Their preference was for a depiction of a successful defence against a besieging enemy, and, often combined with this (particularly on the Dutch side), the shared suffering endured by the people of the town concerned. The content of the piece is commonly elucidated with an inscription, either in the painting itself or on the frame, in which the conflict and the sacrifices made are recalled and the assistance received from God is proclaimed.
In most cases the general format consists of a view of the town with the events simply filled in. [26] These were, it must be remembered, paintings that had been commissioned by the towns themselves, and accordingly the towns must be centre stage: individuals are seldom given prominence. The purpose of the work was to reinforce the historical identity of the town and to promote a sense of unity. [27]
The importance of this collective aspect of such paintings also goes some way to explaining the almost total absence of siege scenes in the town halls of places that ultimately capitulated. Here the victory was usually the work of generals and their organized armies, in the North principally princes Maurice and Frederick Henry, in the South Alessandro Farnese, Archduke Albert and Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. The role that the vanquished town and its population played in the outcome was slight, so that the towns were much less able to identify themselves with it. Moreover, for those responsible for the suffering it was now impossible to point to a powerful and evil enemy: the besieger was, after all, the ultimate 'liberator' who later called the tune, at the town hall as elsewhere - and preferred not to be portrayed as an ogre. In the case of the victories of Frederick Henry, finally, what probably also played a part was the fact that for towns in Brabant such as Bois-le-Duc ('s-Hertogenbosch) and Breda, but also for Hulst in Flanders, they were not thereby automatically accepted into the Republic as fully-fledged towns with a say in what went on. As 'towns of the Generality', they continued to play a subordinate role compared with the towns and cities of the other seven provinces. Paintings of these successful sieges do exist, but those who commissioned them must be sought in circles other than those of local government. [28]
III The Houses of Orange and Habsburg
Besides events, of course, there were also particular individuals who were indissolubly linked with the Eighty Years War. In the South they were mainly members of the house of Habsburg and their stewards, in the North they were the scions of the house of Orange. The portraits of these political and military leaders were regularly purchased for town and city halls. Traditionally these were decorated with the official portraits of the ruling aristocracy, such as the old counts and countessess of Holland and dukes of Brabant, whose titles had been borne in the sixteenth century by such as Charles V and Philip II of Spain.
In the seventeenth century portraits of the Spanish king naturally continued to be purchased for the town halls of the Southern Netherlands, as did portraits of his various governors. Those of the sovereign archduke and archduchess Albert of Austria and the Infanta Isabella were particularly popular, and were included in the set of paintings of the dukes of Brabant ordered for the Stateroom by the city of Antwerp. These were to replace a series destroyed by fire during the Spanish Fury. [29] In the town hall at Nieuwpoort there hung a series of portraits of Philip II and Mary Tudor, Albert and Isabella, and Philip V and Elizabeth of Austria. [30]
We also come across the Habsburgs in several other scenes. We have already encountered Farnese and Philip in the Allegory on the Second Blossoming of Antwerp after the Reconquest in 1585 by Alessandro Farnese and the Cardinal-Infante in The Battle of Kallo. In the city hall of Brussels, we learn from a description written in 1631 by Abraham Golnitzius, there hung a painting of Isabella shooting parrots, [31] and according to the same author a number of victories by Archduke Albert were commemorated in the city hall of Ghent - not so much in paintings as by the spoils of battle. Golnitzius also records that Ghent had a painting in which the marriage of Albert and Isabella was compared with the marriages of the 'daughters of the family of Sulpha'. [32] What he had seen was a painting that was part of the joyous entry of Albert and Isabella into Ghent in 1600. This, according to a description published by Joannes Bochius, depicted the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, based on Numbers 27. In this version of the story they married within their dead father's tribe so that they received his inheritance, which thus 'stayed in the family'. [33] In Ghent, then, the arrangement that Philip II had made with his daughter and son-in-law, which was also depicted here, was placed in a Biblical context.
The presence in town and city halls of parts of the ephemeral structures that were erected on the occasion of the joyous entries of Habsburg rulers was not uncommon in the Southern Netherlands. These triumphal arches and stages were used to celebrate the new governor with allegorical scenes and tableaux of military successes and the like. They also provide references to the towns themselves and their privileges. The principal items of decor for such joyous entries were kept at many city halls including those of Louvain, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges.
Although as Stadtholders the members of the house of Orange were not sovereign rulers, their portraits too came to be hung in many of the town and city halls of the Republic from the end of the sixteenth century onwards. Sometimes complete sets of portraits of the various members of the family were ordered, many of them from Michiel van Mierevelt and his studio. The first of these sets hung in the city hall in Delft, to be followed by others in Kampen, Zwolle, Bois-le-Duc and elsewhere. In some cases the paintings were equestrian portraits in which the Stadtholders' military successes were depicted in the background. One set by Isaac Isaacz which hung in Harderwijk showed the three princes - William, Maurice and Frederick Henry - with, in the background, an unidentified sea battle, the battle of Nieuwpoort and the taking of Bois-le-Duc respectively. Remarkably, these series did not always confine themselves to the Stadtholders. In Delft, for example, the set included the portraits of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and for the winter of 1619-1620 King of Bohemia, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of James I and sister of Charles I of England. In Harderwijk there were three-quarter length portraits of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the French king Henry IV. Doubtless the presence of these three royal figures there had something to do with their prominent role in the Protestant struggle. [34]
Besides portraits, the pro-Orange city fathers of Delft and Haarlem also acquired allegorical paintings of William of Orange. [35] All in all, though, it looks as if the Habsburgs were more strongly represented in the town halls of the Southern Netherlands than the members of the house of Orange in those of the Republic, a fact which is doubtless connected with the difference in political systems.
IV More Obscure References
The paintings referred to above all have in common the fact that they can easily be identified as having to do with particular events and persons in the Eighty Years War. But in some town and city halls there were also works of art of which we can only suppose that they must refer to the war in some indirect way. The Massacre of the Innocents, painted for the city of Haarlem by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem in the early 1590s together with three other canvases, is a case in point. As these paintings were hung in the Prinsenhof, which was part of the city hall complex, it is reasonable to assume that they had some political significance, possibly even some direct relevance to the situation in Haarlem at the time. [36] For example, the painting can be seen in the light of the siege of Haarlem of 1573, which ended with heavy fighting during which many of the city's inhabitants were brutally murdered; but it can also be interpreted more generally as an example of the arbitrariness of tyranny, in which case it is easy to see a possible reference to Philip II and Alba. [37] But as contemporary sources are silent on the matter we can only speculate on the intended interpretation.
There was another Massacre in the city hall of Antwerp, this one by Frans Floris. Here the obvious connection is with the Spanish Fury of 1576, when a large proportion of the populace were massacred. However, by the time that event took place Frans Floris had already been dead for around six years. The pro-Dutch city fathers purchased the painting in April 1583, some three months after French troops had attempted unsuccessfully to stage a re-run of the Spanish Fury in Antwerp, [38] but whether the picture was bought on account of the parallel with the city's own recent past is a question that remains unanswered.
That the interpretation of a painting can indeed depend as much on the historical circumstances as on the precise iconography is evidenced by the following example - again from Antwerp. In 1608 the city government ordered two paintings for the Stateroom, the hall in which the negotiations took place for the Twelve Years Truce that was signed there on 9 April 1609. The first piece, Scaldis and Anverpia by Abraham Janssen, was an allegorical scene of Antwerp and the Scheldt, and with it the city fathers hoped to bring the need to have the Dutch blockade of the Scheldt lifted to the attention of the negotiators. However, the theme was not devised specially for this occasion. As the inventory of 1571 shows, there was already a painting on this theme in the 'lords' room' in the city hall. The same applies to the second picture, the Adoration of the Kings by Rubens. In 1571 there was a painting on this theme in the 'steward's room'. [39] Since Rubens's painting too was painted on the occasion of the negotiations for the Twelve Years Truce, the content of the picture must also have had some relevant significance. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the exotic character of the kings and their retinues, and of the riches they carry with them, are an implicit reference to the sea trade between East and West which the Southern Netherlands hoped to resume once the Truce had been concluded. [40] Thus two scenes that had already been in the city hall for some time were now, in 1609, invested with topical significance.
The same must surely also be true of the allegory on Justice and Peace that was painted, together with the town's arms, on a mantelpiece in one of the rooms of the town hall in Damme. A scene of this kind was not uncommon in a town hall and could have been used at any time as an illustration of the general aims and preconditions of good government, but since it was ordered in 1609, the year in which the Twelve Years Truce was concluded, the link with the situation at the time is quickly made. [41]
In 1632 - long after the truce came to an end and the fighting restarted in 1621 - the town of Dordrecht purchased from the artist Christiaen van Couwenbergh a painting, the composition of which is based on a work by Rubens, of Delilah cutting the hair from the head of the sleeping Samson and thereby robbing him of his strength (plate 6). This painting was given a place in the town hall's council room, an unusual choice for a piece with such a theme: this is not, after all, a typical Biblical exemplum virtutis. Not surprisingly, then, the painting has been associated with various political interpretations. It has been suggested, for example, that the underlying theme - the hero seduced and undone by his enemies - has to do with the peace overtures that were coming from the South, and which were also being discussed at meetings of the town council. In short, the suggestion is that the piece was intended as a warning not to be taken in by smooth talking on the part of the enemy. [42] This interpretation remains speculative, however, especially as at this time Dordrecht was tending towards support for peace with Spain. But what about the growling lion hidden in the draperies on the right? Might this addition to Rubens's composition not after all be a reference to the watchful Dutch lion? Sadly, as in some of the other cases discussed above, in the absence of sources we have no way of determining the precise intentions of the city fathers of Dordrecht.
V The Treaty of Münster
Despite a certain amount of opposition, it was finally possible for the Treaty of Münster to be concluded in January 1648, making the Republic of the United Provinces a de jure as well as a de facto independent state. Some town governments saw this as an occasion to have the treaty and its consequences recorded in works of art. Here Amsterdam was in the vanguard: on 28 October 1648 the foundation stone was laid for its new city hall, an edifice which may be seen as in itself a monument to the Peace. [43] Amsterdam, having been a staunch supporter of the treaty, saw itself as having had a major role in its achievement. The building and its decoration celebrate the city itself, the treaty, and the independence of the Republic which was now enshrined in it. Thus on the outside of the building the tympana sculpted by Artus Quellinus in the mid 1650s glorify universal peace. Above the tympanum at the front stands Peace holding a caduceus and an olive branch. The tympanum itself represents the prosperity that peace brought to the city. Inside the building the Revolt is recorded and justified in the arches of the gallery by a series of paintings known as the Batavian series, most of which were painted in the 1660s. The uprising of the Batavians, who were popularly supposed to be the ancestors of the Hollanders, against the Romans was seen as a prefiguration of the Dutch Revolt against Spain; it was also used as a model to justify the Revolt. [44] The painters of the series, which was never completed, included Rembrandt, Jan Lievens and Jacob Jordaens.
In the town hall of 's-Hertogenbosch hangs a painting by Theodore van Thulden of 1650 entitled Brabant begs the States General to admit her as an equal partner to the Seven United Provinces which depicts the political consequences of the peace for the town. [45] The painting can be seen as a reaction to the new state of affairs which, while it had been created earlier, when Frederick Henry had conquered the town in 1629, had now been enshrined in the Treaty of Münster. The part of Brabant that had been conquered by the States no longer had an independent position in the government of the land but was administered from The Hague as a Land of the Generality. This naturally led to great dissatisfaction and frustration amongst the regents of Brabant, and the painting gives expression to their displeasure. To the right on a throne sits a young woman symbolizing the Generality. The Generality is approached by the maid of Bois-le-Duc bearing the arms of Brabant so that they can be added to the row of shields of the seven provinces hanging above the throne. On the steps to the right the putti are adding an arrow, Brabant, to the sheaf of arrows symbolizing the United Netherlands.
If commemoration of the Treaty of Münster seems to have occupied only a modest place in the town halls of the Republic, [46] in the Southern Netherlands it appears to have been completely absent. This is hardly surprising, considering that these provinces had emerged as the major losers: the Scheldt remained closed and the region continued to be the theatre of hostilities between France and Spain for some years to come. However, a Southern Netherlandish clue that may lead to the Treaty of Münster is a print that was in the town hall of Furnes (Veurne) in 1693. This depicted not festivities or apposite allegories, but simply the 'town of Münster'. Further than this surely very prosaic reference to the events of 1648 the authorities in the towns of the Southern Netherlands appear not to have been willing to go. [47]
FOOTNOTES
1. Canvas, 190 x 268. See Biesboer 1983, pp. 48, 50, pl. 23.
2. Panel, 250 x 230 cm, Naarden, town hall. Ausst.kat. Zwolle 1992, pp. 56, 59f., with illus.
3. For this Latin inscription see the illustration in Ausst.kat. Zwolle 1992.
4. Cf. Luttervelt 1960; Huiskamp 1997, pp. 335-346, esp. 335f.
5. Orlers 1641, p. 538.
6. Wool and linen, 297 x 366 cm; Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. See Cat. Leiden 1993, pp. 20f., with illus. The tapestry is not mentioned by Orlers, even though his description of the town refers to an enormous number of other works of art. The frame with sea-gods, nymphs etc. was designed by Isaac Claesz van Swanenburgh.
7. Orlers 1641, p. 163. See also Huiskamp 1994, p 147.
8. Canvas, 197 x 307.5 cm; Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. See Kat. Leiden 1983a, p. 347, with illus. Although Orlers writes of a commission ('door last vande Heeren Burgermeesteren ... doen maecken' (by order of the Lords Burgomasters ... to have made...)), the sources show that the piece was a gift from the painter to the city (Orlers 1641, p. 164; reference in Kat. Leiden 1983a, p. 347).
9. It may be that the presence of so many Southern Netherlandish immigrants in Leiden played a part here, in addition to the personal engagement of the artists. Both van Veen and Isaac and Claes van Swanenburgh were members of the patriciate of Leiden (Isaac also painted the series in the Saaihal, as well as designing windows commemorating the relief of Leiden for St John's church in Gouda).
10. It is uncertain whether this painting originally hung in the city hall of Haarlem. See Biesboer 1983, p. 50.
11. Canvas, 178 x 478 cm; Oudewater, town hall. Hazelzet 1988, pp. 7, 42f., with illus.
12. Canvas, 177.6 x 182 cm; Lier, town hall. See Verbiest 1961, pp. 129, 131 (for the inscriptions), 140-3, with illus.
13. Canvas, 172 x 237 cm; Malines (Mechelen), Hof van Busleyden. Verbiest 1961, pp. 134-137, with illus. Some of the figures may be portraits. To commemorate the relief of Lier the city of Antwerp had a medallion struck. For this and other mementoes see Verbiest 1961.
14. Canvas, 113 x 146 cm; Nieuwpoort, Stedelijk Museum. See Casier/Bergmans 1922, pp. 14f., with illus.
15. This poem, as an inscription at the top says, is a 'cronicon' or chronogram. According to Casier and Bergmans, ibid., the date given is 1600. The canvas also has a number of shorter inscriptions explaining various aspects of the scene.
16. Canvas, each 121 x 182 cm; Venlo, town hall. See Huiskamp 1994, pp. 56-60, with illus.
17. See Laak o.J., p. 74.
18. Another painting of the failed siege of Goes by the Beggars in 1572 was probably also ordered when the town was in Spanish hands, but in this case it remained in the town hall after the changeover. See Huiskamp 1997, pp. 236ff., pl. 3.
19. See Velde 1962/63, p. 176f.
20. See Bevers 1985, pp. 55-58.
21. Panel, 159 x 198 cm; Bruges, Groeningemuseum. This is probably the piece that appears in the inventory of 1654 as follows: 'Inde nieucamer ... een tafereel de pays' (In the new room .. a country scene). See Vos 1979, pp. 103-106, No. 0.24, with illus.
22. Vos 1979, pp. 103-106.
23. See exhib.cat. Antwerp 1993, pp. 280f., cat. No. 135, with illus.
24. However, the inventory of the city hall drawn up in 1615 refers to a view by Hans Vredeman de Vries (Antwerp, Stadsarchief (municipal archives), P.k. 2204).
25. Canvas, 227 x 243 cm; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten. Prims 1930, p. 36.
26. Views of towns under siege were also to be seen in the town hall of Goes and the hall of the civic guard in Alkmaar. It is legitimate to suppose that similar paintings of the sieges of Zaltbommel and Deventer were likewise commissioned by those towns' authorities. Cf. also Gelder 1984, p. 150.
27. Cf. Fröschl 1988.
28. Cf. the article by Michel van Maarseveen elsewhere in this volume.
29. Prims 1930, p. 35.
30. Couvez 1852, p. 538, No. 9.
31. Golnitzius 1631, p. 124. Isabella's parrot-shoots appear in more than one other painting. Cf. e.g. the reply to Antoon Salaert in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels (inv. No. 172).
32. Golnitzius 1631, p. 22.
33. Bochius 1602a, p. 330.
34. Frederick V was a cousin of the house of Orange, Henry IV godfather to Frederick Henry. As regards the portrait of Gustavus Adolphus it is interesting to note that Pieter Isaacsz, the painter's father, had been a spy in the service of the king. For this and other portraits of members of the house of Orange see Huiskamp 1997, pp. 340-342; cf. also the article by Michel van Maarseveen elsewhere in this volume.
35. The picture in Delft was in the town hall, that in Haarlem in the Prinsenhof, part of the city hall complex. Also in the Prinsenhof were various maps and prints of the Battle of Nieuwpoort and a genealogical tree of the house of Nassau. See Bueren 1993, pp. 460-463.
36. The other three paintings are of Adam and Eve, The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis (or Banquet of the Gods) and The Monk and the Beguine.
37. See Biesboer 1983, pp. 27ff., 32-35; Bueren/Spies 1992, pp. 201f.; Bueren 1993, pp. 202, 437-446.
38. See Branden o.J., p. 244.
39. See Prims 1930, pp. 28, 29; Auwera 1994, pp. 232f., pl. 7, 8.
40. Auwera 1994, pp. 232f.
41. See Devliegher 1971, p. 53, pl. 71. There is also a picture of Peace and Justice of 1609 in the town hall of Venlo.
42. Canvas, 156 x 196 cm; Dordrecht, Dordts Museum. Schwartz 1984, p. 87, pl. 70.
43. See the article by Eymert-Jan Goossens elsewhere in this volume.
44. Cf. Waal 1952, pp. 210-238; Schama 1988, pp. 80 ff.
45. Canvas, 245 x 305 cm; 's-Hertogenbosch, town hall. See exhib.cat. Strasbourg 1992, pp. 79-82, with illus.
46. Works which can be linked to the treaty were, however, ordered for e.g. two militia halls and the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, and for the Lakenhal in Leiden.
47. Potter/Ronse/P. Borre 1873, p. 210. The treaty was, however, festively proclaimed elsewhere, e.g. Antwerp and Louvain, where a peace theatre and a peace chariot respectively were built for the occasion.
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