Architectural detail

Occasionally I commute between where I live and Zaandam. That means a ride with the option to take the short and straight, but exposed and boring route along the provincial road. Or I can opt for the longer but more sheltered and scenic version. 

Usually I take the longer one because the beautiful old houses alongside the winding road make for a far more enjoyable ride. And sometimes I pick out an architectural detail, and focus on that during the ride, just to have a bit of fun while my legs peddle away the miles. 

The other day was just such a day. I picked out the sky light (the windows above front doors) and because time was on my side I decided to photograph them for you. It's amazing to see how many variations there are.

First; back in the old days (1600's) these lights had a clear function and that was to shed light into the dark hallway behind the front door. Because they weren't able to make large sheets of glass at that time, these windows were made up by connecting small pieces of glass with the aid of lead strips. Similar to this early example; 

As time progressed and fashions changed, these upper windows or fanlights (is that the proper English word?) changed accordingly. 

Along the route you can see windows from the opulent Renaissance to the more common trees of life from the 19th Century. 

The more you look, the more variations you can spot; from elaborate pictorial carvings to windows with stark graphical rabbets. 

I also noticed returning symbols, among were arrows and wondered if they represent a meaning. A search on the net soon made me stumble across this page;

http://www.bovenlichten.net/id33.html

Wow! So much information on such a dedicated subject. Although in Dutch I soon realized this site should be up here, for all who are interested in more background info then I can ever offer. 

http://www.bovenlichten.net/index.html

(If you enter the address in Google translate you can read the site in any language desired)

So let me just finish with a few more pictures of these special windows above the front door. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do when I pass them along my route.

The 'Michelangelo' of wood carving

If you're interested in wood carving you might want to watch this video. It's an episode of a wonderful documentary series called 'Carved with Love, that was a part of 'Handmade in Britain'.  It was aired in 2013, by BBC 4 (British Broadcasting Company). This episode features the genius Grinling Gibbons. It's almost an hour, so beware. But if you do, sit back and enjoy. You won't be disappointed. His work is mind-blowing!

Carved.With.Love.The.Genius.of.British.Woodwork.s01e02.Glorious.Grinling.Gibbons.PDTV.x264.ATHENA wso from Mastergen on Vimeo.

If you enjoyed you might want to search the net for more of this series. How about 'The divine art of carpentry' or one dedicated to Chippendale?

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Droste Effect, or how to get confused

Some time ago I'd run into miniatures where I'd least expected it. It was at The Zuiderzee Museum, an open air museum here in Holland, showing how people used to life and work around the Zuiderzee between 1880 and 1930, the period which preceded the completion of the Ijselmeer dam in 1932. It's a tranquil little fisherman's village, inhabited by actors that keep playing their role so fierce, they invite you to join them for them a cup of coffee in their small and old fashion kitchen, claiming it's 'time for a break from mending fishing nets'.

As we were strolling around we came to this large barn. Not knowing what to expect we entered this robust building and that's where the Droste Effect set in.

In case you're unfamiliar with this term';  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droste_effect.  In short it's known as miss en abyme in art. It's the effect of a picture appearing within itself, in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. The appearance is recursive; the smaller version contains an even smaller version of the picture, and so on. The effect is named after the design on the storage tins and cardboard boxes of Droste Cacoa powder, one of a main Dutch brands. It shows a nurse carrying a serving tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a box with the same image  ----->

Now back to the barn. Walking into it was surreal…  It was a high empty space, and the inside was all painted white. The barn was divided on the right hand side by a large glass wall, separating 2/3 of the space from the entrance area. Behind the glass wall was raised platform, a bit like a stage. On top of it was, what seemed to be, a living room setting. 

That was surreal on its own, not something I'd expected. The entrance area was completely empty, except from a pedestal with a maquette. A closer look made me realize it was a model from the barn. The roof was transparent so you could look inside the model.

And there you could see the 'living room' behind the glass wall. And in the entrance area was also the same model as I was actually looking at. And that's when things started to twist and turn…. I got sucked in.

Because it was like looking like at a 1:144 dolls house inside a 1:12 dolls house while you're actually inside the dolls house itself. And in this case it was a representation of itself. 

And if you looked even closer you could see a micro model inside the miniature model, inside the model. 

A confusing experience, which left me feeling like the nurse on a Droste storage tin. Fortunately it was a magically beautiful day and walking back home the wind in my hair cleared my head in the sky. How wonderful miniatures can be :)

Happy New Year!

My professional lives demands the most of me during the holiday season. That has meant i've not been around much lately. But special friends like you and your creative outbursts are always on my mind.  So let me wish you all a blessed New Year, just like i feel having you all in my life.

(these old fashioned dutch skates, called friese doorlopers, were a commission back in 2011)

A Day at the Museum

The Rijks Museum in Amsterdam opened it's doors earlier this year, after a restoration that has lasted over ten years. Im not getting into details about that (ai... politics!) other then to say; 'it was about time!' Circumstances and trying to avoid the first swarm of people kept me from going to visit too soon. But yesterday i decided the day had arrived! Finally i could go back, and get reacquainted with my old stumping ground. A place where i'd spend many many days on end as a child and teenager.

The restoration teams had reinstated the central welcoming hall, leading up to the Gallery of Honor. That gallery houses the most famous of the 17th Century paintings including the Nachtwacht by Rembrandt van Rijn. I understand it was the fashion in the 70's and 80's, but can you imagine such grand space being hidden under white latex??? Glad it has been brought back to live!

Finding our way around the new layout was rather easy and with time periods as guide in the set up. Only trouble was crossing the ground level entrance hall a few times, making us show our tickets to get back into the museum itself. Other than that is was breath taking and the new idea's about setting of unique pieces of art has paid of well. Take for instance this dark blue back ground on the wall. Not something you would think of initially, no? 

All in all the number of artifacts, paintings and furniture on display was kept rather conservative (not really but in relation to the old days) but that worked fine as well. I remember the old museum as rather cramped and all the same pieces were put together, regardless of age or style sometimes. Representing a certain era through all the different media (furniture, ceramics, paintings etc.) as they have done now, with the new layout worked far better (imho).

They'd also opened up the library and it was just as impressive!

Of course special interest was there for the dolls houses on display. Petronella Oortmans's  and Petronella Dunois's. 

One of the most stunning pieces of the day -for me- was this barometer, with a case made by Nicolas Lanckamp (1709) The carving on it was sublime and very intricate. 

Another one was this skull made of boxwood (Albert Janz Vinckenbrinck, 1650) It's only an inch high (?) yet the detailing again... was jaw dropping.

Of course i had interest in this X-chair too. I was familiar with the different technique to fold this type of chair but it was really nice to see it for real (don't tell but i've crawled underneath to get pics :))

Many more items of stunning quality and very inspiring to see and study. 

In the Middle Ages section i'd run into these two little chests. Originally from the 1500's, only recently I'd made one in a class with Bill Robertson. Just like Josje and Elga have posted about them. It's really nice to see where the prototype that Bill had made derived from. I do believe his one was modeled after a chest from Boston (?) but non the less, museum pieces can be such an inspiration to make replica's of in miniature :)

But the best of the day was saved till last. Also in the basement of the museum that's dedicated to the middle ages.  Not only were there these little ivory chest, I also stumbled into two artifacts i'd known about for quite some time and hoped i would see on display & for real; spherical & carved types of gaud also known as rosary bead or prayer nut.

I do have to apologize for the poor quality of the latest pictures. Unfortunately the battery of my camera had died halfway through my visit. I'd taken so many pics already... :) That lead me to divert to my phone. It's a great phone and takes wonderful pictures but the circumstances here were really challenging; dark, behind glass and very tiny, so please accept my apology. I've added links to see them better.

This tiny boxwood ball was incredibly finely carved. It's called a 'prayer nut', intended to be hung from the belt or a rosary, and was meant as an aid to prayer. In my studies i'd already read lots about them and found a cool little video that the Art GAllery of Ontario had put up. They've done intensive research on a different one by the same maker; Adam Theodrici, or also called Adam Dirckz.

There was another one from his hand on display. Many of the great museums around the world seem to have examples of these tiny devotion attributes. Miniaturizing was popular in those days and fortunately many have survived the more 500 years that lay between back when they were made and today.

I could do a complete post about these beads, let me just say that they were the high light of my visit to the Rijks Museum. But the museum is packed with many many more great pieces of art that deserve more attention, so I'll definitely go back soon!