Dutch Masters
Zaterdag By now I've (selectively) viewed two art museums, the ornate Rijksmuseum, with its vast treasury of Dutch art, and the Van Gogh (pronounced like a gutteral "hock"). The Steens and Vermeers sharpen and suspend moments of life in ways more profound, and creepier, than Madame Tussaud's wax exhibits (a popular attraction here). But the sheer numbers of Rembrandts and Van Goghs on display, and in context, offer a full spectrum of their achievements. Van Gogh noted that in portraiture the eyes should reveal the soul--perhaps he learned this from Rembrandt. Though of different periods and working in vastly different styles, in both artists' works details of versimilitude are underscored by surprisingly stylized elements. Moving from his bleak gray-toned studies of peasant life along the North Sea coast to Paris and Provence, Van Gogh greatly varied his subjects, style, and palette. When viewed together, the paintings are unmistakeably the work of one hand, but, his mutations rival Picasso's.
Zondag (Jordaan district) I'm frustrated taking photos here. The architecture holds still, but people are in constant motion. The blond guy in a red jacket resting his bicycle a moment in a beam of sunlight striking a canal bridge beside tethered houseboats is gone, as is the smiling girl in pigtails tied with orange ribbons leaning precariously out of a green-enameled doorway beside a window bearing some antigue Dutch sign in gold letters. These might have made pictures worth looking at later. As for architecture and the canals, postcards are better. With huge cumulous clouds racing above the gables, even the light won't hold still. Except for the Dutch Masters.
posted by Paul at 2:51 AM
