Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age

The Ambitions of a Wealthy Widow in a Painted Chamber by Ferdinand Bol

Margriet Eikema Hommes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040792759
• Topic: Art

In the early 1650s Ferdinand Bol produced a series of wall-covering paintings. This 'painted chamber' is a unique example of a branch of the art of painting which was extremely popular in the seventeenth century, although hardly any of it now remains. Bol's ensemble has always been surrounded by mysteries. Who was the initial owner, what was the reason for its commission and how were the ceiling-high canvases originally placed? Through a combination of material-technical research and archival, stylistic, iconographic and cultural-historical investigation these questions have for the first time been given convincing answers.,This book, with Bol's unique ensemble in the lead role, is the account of an exciting (art) historical quest. The journey begins with apparently insignificant damage to the canvases and small remnants of old paint and varnish, passing via Biblical, classical and contemporary history to its eventual destination in the remarkable life of a particularly ambitious Utrecht widow. The reader becomes familiar with the religious beliefs, ideals and social ambitions of a remarkable woman, and sees close-up how, through Bol's paintings, she was able to give literal expression to her endeavours in the turbulent Utrecht in the middle of the Golden Age.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 A Mysterious Commission
• Chapter 2 Traces at the Paint Surface With the collaboration of Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL)
• Chapter 3 Ferdinand Bol and the Commission for the Nieuwegracht Chapte
• Chapter 4 The Iconography of the Five Chamber Paintinga Chapte
• Chapter 5 'Out of Love for Her House': The Ambitions of Jacoba Lampsins and the Chamber Paintings by Ferdinand Bol
• Chapter 6 Bol's Chamber Paintings in Later Times Written in Collaboration With the painiting conservators from SRAL
• Chapter 7 Ferdinand Bol's Painting Technique With the collaboration of Willem de Ridder, Ineke Joosten, Katrien Keune and SRAL
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Appendix A Canvases and ground layers of Ferdinand Bol's Utrecht series With the collaboration of Ineke Joosten
• Appendix B Paintings owned by Carel Martens, Jacoba Lampsins, and their son Carel Martens With the collaboration of Piet Bakker
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Illustration credits