DAY 9: Monday, March 17, The Rijksmuseum

AMSTERDAM

The Rijksmuseum

Yesterday's walk around the old Jewish quarter was quite somber. Today was different. For one thing, today I snapped many pictures and was tempted to take dozens more. To keep myself in check, I established a rule to photograph only things I wanted to take home. I mean that literally. I wanted to take certain pieces off the walls and pack them in my luggage. Those are the things I took pictures of.

Here are a few.

       House Altar with the Last Supper

                Mechelen, c. 1550

          I could find a place for this.

Portrait of a Man
Corneille de la Haye
c. 1500

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

The above may be difficult to visualize without video. It is a clock that looks as if someone is inside erasing and rewriting the time, over and over. I stood in front of it long enough to conclude it kept excellent time.

***

An aquamanile in the form of a lion
Hildesheim, c. 1220-1230
The lion has a funny little expression.

The Night Watch is being restored.

People closing in on Vermeer's The Milk Maid

A Group of Guardsmen
Dirck Jacobs, c. 1529

Madonna of Humility
Fra Angelico
Florence, c. 1440

As it had been at the Van Gogh Museum, getting close to the more popular pictures, specifically the Vermeers and Rembrandts is hard. When I was persistent, I could catch a glimpse. What a thrill!

I was not prepared to see a special show by Portland's own Carrie Mae Weems. Furthermore, the show--called Painting the Town--was about what happened in Portland in 2020. This is from the catalog:

This is the American photographer's first exhibition in the Netherlands. At first glance, her photographs are reminiscent of abstract paintings. During the Black Lives Matter protests, activists wrote texts on panels that boarded up shop windows as a precaution. The authorities made these messages illegible by rolling large areas of paint over them. This censorship unintentionally resulted in picturesque compositions. In her work, Weems explores what it means to bear witness to history. Social themes such as racism, sexism and discrimination are central to this.]

Tomorrow, at 6:10 a.m. (Yikes), I leave Amsterdam. I'm taking the Eurostar to Brussels, where I have a four-hour layover, and then on to London. Wish me luck!

RANDOM SHOTS OF THE DAY