Rijksmuseum De Meesterwerken

Frommer's Review

The country's premier museum, the Rijksmuseum, is still working through a decade-long refurbishment project process that's due to be completed in 2013. Most of it is closed, but key paintings and other works from the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age can be viewed in the museum's Philips Wing, under the banner of "The Masterpieces." Even in its drastically reduced circumstances, the State Museum is still one of the leading museums in the land. The three-star rating given here is justified for the Golden Age highlights alone, but remember that most of the museum's collection, which totals some 7 million objects (only a fraction of which is displayed at any given time), will be invisible to visitors for some time to come. Still, you'll need to allocate a half-day to get around everything.

Architect Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers (1827-1921), the grandfather of modern Dutch architecture, designed the brick museum in a monumental, gabled Dutch neo-Renaissance style. Cuypers, a Catholic, slipped in more than a dab of neo-Gothic, too, causing the country's thoroughly Protestant King William III to scorn "that cathedral." The building opened in 1885 to a less-than-enthusiastic public reception. Since then, much has been added to both the building and the collection.

The Rijksmuseum contains the world's largest collection of paintings by the Dutch masters, including the most famous of all, a single work that all but defines Holland's Golden Age. That painting is Rembrandt's The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, 1642, better known as The Night Watch. The scene it so dramatically depicts is surely alien to most of the people who flock to see it: gaily uniformed, but not exactly warrior-looking militiamen checking their weapons and accoutrements before moving out on patrol. Captain Cocq (once described as the stupidest man in the city, and whose house at Singel 140-142 still stands), Lieutenant van Ruytenburch, the troopers, and observers (including Rembrandt himself) gaze out at us along the corridor of time, and we're left wondering what's going on underneath the paint, inside their minds. One sentiment might be irritation with this upstart artist, who painted some of their faces in profile or partly hidden, yet charged the full-face fee per man -- the militiamen hated the artistic freedom Rembrandt had exercised on their group portrait. In 1975, the masterpiece was restored after having been attacked and slashed.

Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Maarten van Heemskerck, Paulus Potter, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch, and Gerard Dou are among many other artists represented at the Rijksmuseum. The range is impressive -- individual portraits, guild paintings, landscapes, seascapes, domestic scenes, religious subjects, allegories, and the incredible (and nearly photographic) Dutch still lifes.

In addition, the museum exhibits fine pieces of antique Delftware and silver. Two rare furnished 17th-century dollhouses should be a highlight for children, by bringing the Dutch Golden Age to life for them in a way no amount of "real" stuff could. The dollhouses' owners commissioned craftsmen to copy objects and ornaments, and the contents are exactly as they were in those days, only in miniature. Tiny seashells occupy a display cabinet. The tapestry room walls are covered with silk, the ceiling and the fireplace mantel are painstakingly painted, and Italian marble paves the hall floor. Silver spoons rest on the dining table and the family initials are embroidered on the napkins. Look carefully, and you'll even see pins stuck in pincushions.

In the Rijksmuseum Garden, you can breathe scented air and view interesting sculptural elements and other fragments from old buildings.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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