Showing posts with label Dutch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dutch. Show all posts

July 15 - Happy Birthday, Rembrandt

    Posted on July 15, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on July 15, 2011:




Have you heard of the artist named Rembrandt? Did you know that his real name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn?

One of the most important Dutch artists in history, Rembrandt lived during the 1600s, a period we now call the Dutch Golden Age.

Rembrandt is especially known for his portraits and self-portraits. Here are three self-portraits from different times of Rembrandt's life:




Try creating your own self-portrait. Here are some ideas:

Choose a photo of yourself and carefully sketch with pencil what you see. Try to focus on the shapes formed by the “negative space” between your eye and eyebrow, for example, or between your lower lip and chin line. Notice how dark and light different areas of your photo are, and try to capture that in your drawing. It might help if you make a black-and-white copy of your photo before starting your sketch.



Or make an enlarged copy of a photo - and then cut it in half. Attach one half to a piece of paper - and try to draw the missing half!!

Sit in front of a mirror and sketch yourself. This is more difficult because you will be moving and may also change expression, but it is a fun experiment to try.



If you get permission to do so, you can use special
easily-removable markers to draw a self-portrait
RIGHT ON a mirror!

Enlarge a photo, using a copier, and create grid of evenly-spaced lines on the enlargement. Use very light pencil lines to lay down a proportional grid on your drawing paper. (In other words, even if the squares in the drawing-paper grid are larger than those on the photo, make sure that both grids are the same number of squares high and wide.) Then copy the dark and light areas in each square of the photo onto the drawing paper.



Here is a WikiHow article about self-portraits. 






Plan ahead:


Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:



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April 20 - Freedom of Religion in New Amsterdam!

Posted on April 20, 2020

I don't ever want to hear this: "They killed Jesus!"

One of the awful and ironic tragedies of the Christian religion is that Jesus's death - even though it was Roman soldiers who carried out the execution - is often blamed on the Jewish leaders who (according to the story) asked that he be put to death. 

And then somehow many Christians blame ALL Jews for his death. Even though Jesus himself was a Jew! Plus, his disciples and supporters were all Jews!


It seems that too many people use any excuse (no matter how unreasonable or counter-factual) to hate other people.

Hatred of Jews is called anti-semitism, and history has seen far too much of it. 



But today's historical anniversary is a little bit of positivity in the story of anti-semitism:

When Portuguese forces conquered Recife, in Brazil, in 1654, the Jewish people of Recife faced oppression. Several Jewish families fled Brazil aboard a ship, but in the Caribbean they either ran into a storm and were stranded in Spanish Jamaica, or their ship was was attacked by a Spanish pirate (I've seen different reports!). Whatever happened, those Jews were fearful of facing the Spanish Inquisition - which was big-time religious bigotry, in which non-Catholics were forced to convert or die. 

The Jews of Recife, Brazil, in the 1600s: various
groups went to Dutch and English colonies in South
America and the Caribbean Sea, one group went to
the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and the bulk of
the Recife Jews went all the way back to the Netherlands.


The 23 desperate Jews were finally allowed to sail to a Dutch colony in North America. They hoped to find a welcome there - a place where they could worship as Jews, settle and work and become a community.

That Dutch colony - called New Amsterdam - was ruled by Director Peter Stuyvesant, and he did not welcome the Jews. Their perilous journey had resulted in them coming pretty empty handed, and Stuyvesant thought they would become a drain on the colony. 



This logo of the Dutch West India
Company appeared on its flags.
However, under pressure from Jewish folks living in the Netherlands, leaders of the Dutch West India Company ordered that the Jews be given refuge in the colony.



"Refuge" means shelter, a safe place. "Refugees" are people who need shelter because they had to flee their homes to escape harm or death.

The Jewish families settled in New Amsterdam, and their freedom to worship their own religion was safeguarded on this date in 1657.

One of the 23 Jews from Recife, Asser Levy, was the first Jew known to own a home anywhere in North America.

Asser Levy Public Baths, located on Asser Levy Place in
Manhattan, NYC. This facility is named after Asser Levy, one
of the most prominent of New York Cities early Jewish citizens.

In 1664, the British invaded the colony of New Amsterdam.  The Brits took over and renamed the town New York. 




Nowadays New York has grown to be the largest city in the U.S. and one of the most important cities in the world! It's also the city with the most Jewish citizens in America.

Also nowadays: many of us push back whenever we spot anti-semitism.  






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April 11 - Opening and Reopening - and Amazing Sound Quality!

Posted on April 11, 2019

On this date in 1888, the Concertgebouw - Amsterdam's now-famous concert hall - held its grand opening.

That night, an orchestra of 120 musicians and a chorus of 500 singers performed works by Wagner, Handel, Bach, and Beethoven. 



The Concertgebouw is famous for its amazing acoustics. In other words, music played in this building is even more beautiful and resonant than it is in most other concert halls. It's a bit strange that this is true, in some ways, because the architect, Dolf van Gendt, was considered by his family to be utterly without musical talent. This means that he lacked a "good ear," which means the ability to notice especially good acoustics. So...how did he succeed in creating great acoustics?

At the time, the science of acoustics wasn't much developed, so architects tried to copy what has worked in the past. Van Gendt copied successful concert halls with both the shape of the halls and the materials used. But the amazing acoustics cannot be fully understood even with modern-day equipment, so I am guessing that some of van Gendt's success was luck!



Even though the Concertgebouw isn't ideal for amplified music,
several rock bands performed there in the 1960s, including
Pink Floyd.


Also: 

On this date in 1988, the Concertgebouw REopened. It had been discovered five years before that the concert hall was sinking into the damp ground - remember, the Netherlands are literally named "low lands," and the land lies famously close to - and in some cases below - sea level. 

Because of Netherlands' low elevation and history of flooding,
it now has a billion-dollar sea wall to prevent future flooding!

A beautiful building sinking into the earth is not a good thing, of course! And several cracks were discovered in the walls. By 1985, emergency restoration was begun. The posts that supported the building were made of wood - and were rotting away from continued contact with water! - and so 2,186 pilings were removed and replaced with concrete pillars. 


Since so much effort was being made to save the building, a Dutch architect and his crew built a new basement for better, larger dressing areas and rehearsal spaces, and they also built a new entrance.

By the way, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw is considered one of the world's greatest concert halls, and it is one of the most visited halls in the world!






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