The Rijks Museum
Hello!
Sorry that I haven't posted for a while- I have been quite ill for a long time now! Today I am going to write part 3 of my Amsterdam adventure: The Rijks Museum. If you haven't already, please see my two previous posts about Amsterdam and Anne Frank's House. The Rijks Museum is a Dutch National Museum of art and history and it is in Amsterdam, not far from the Van Gogh Museum. In 2013 and 2014, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands with record numbers of 2.2 million and 2.45 million visitors. It is a very popular tourist attraction and when I went, it was very busy with tourists from all over the world there. I downloaded the museum's app on my phone as a tour guide and was led around the museum. The tour I went on only pointed out the highlights because if you listened to information on every exhibit, it would take you an age to get round the museum. The highlights tour was perfect for me because there was just the right amount of information on each exhibit, with the opportunity to hear more should you want to. There were also other tours if you wanted to go for longer and there was a family tour for young children which provided activities based on the art for you to do. My younger sister did this tour and although she didn't have all the information about the exhibits, she had still been able to appreciate the art through games and quizzes. I am going to write about some of my favourite parts of the museum.
This picture is of a huge library in the museum called the Cuypers Library. I was compelled to take a picture of it because it looks amazing and was one of my favourite parts of the museum. I particularly liked the spiral staircase and the way that all of the walls were lined with books. The library has a huge collection of books and is home to a number of important special collections, including: auction catalogues and various collections. The library had recently been renovated and transformed into a classical reading room.
Here is a picture of a large doll's house in the museum. There were three doll's houses but the most famous one was collected by Petronella Oortman. In the 17th century, dolls houses were not toys; they were a hobby. This doll's house was so impressive because all the pieces were precisely to scale. She ordered parts from abroad and the doll's house turned out to be quite an expensive hobby! I wanted to write about the doll's house because I thought it looked so elegant. All of the rooms are furnished with so much detail and the whole thing looked spectacular.
These two sculptures struck me in particular. The one on the left was one of a set of figures, all decked with fancy togas and turbans as if they came from some sort of medieval fashion show. They once stood round the tomb of the young wife of Charles the Bold. They represent her ancestors, a bit like a family tree. The one on the right was one of two huge sculptures and they scared me a bit at first! This was the desired effect as they were guards of a temple, designed to scare evil forces away.
Sorry that I haven't posted for a while- I have been quite ill for a long time now! Today I am going to write part 3 of my Amsterdam adventure: The Rijks Museum. If you haven't already, please see my two previous posts about Amsterdam and Anne Frank's House. The Rijks Museum is a Dutch National Museum of art and history and it is in Amsterdam, not far from the Van Gogh Museum. In 2013 and 2014, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands with record numbers of 2.2 million and 2.45 million visitors. It is a very popular tourist attraction and when I went, it was very busy with tourists from all over the world there. I downloaded the museum's app on my phone as a tour guide and was led around the museum. The tour I went on only pointed out the highlights because if you listened to information on every exhibit, it would take you an age to get round the museum. The highlights tour was perfect for me because there was just the right amount of information on each exhibit, with the opportunity to hear more should you want to. There were also other tours if you wanted to go for longer and there was a family tour for young children which provided activities based on the art for you to do. My younger sister did this tour and although she didn't have all the information about the exhibits, she had still been able to appreciate the art through games and quizzes. I am going to write about some of my favourite parts of the museum.
This is a picture of one of the pianos in the Rijks Museum. Being a pianist myself, I found Iwas naturally interested in this piano because of its intricate carvings and the paintwork made me all the more intrigued. I found out that one of the museum's architects, Pierre Cuypers, designed this piano along with a music cabinet, which stood beside it in the museum, as an engagement present for his second wife. The images on the piano are scenes from the life of St Cecilia, patron saint of music. A fragment of St Cecilia's skeleton is said to be preserved in a tiny case at the front of the piano! I found that a bit disgusting. One of the panels shows St Cecilia being beheaded and I'm not sure if I would want that on my piano but apparently that was a crucial part of St Cecilia's life and the piano would be incomplete without it.
These two sculptures struck me in particular. The one on the left was one of a set of figures, all decked with fancy togas and turbans as if they came from some sort of medieval fashion show. They once stood round the tomb of the young wife of Charles the Bold. They represent her ancestors, a bit like a family tree. The one on the right was one of two huge sculptures and they scared me a bit at first! This was the desired effect as they were guards of a temple, designed to scare evil forces away.
My final exhibit I want to talk about is this: the statue of the Hindu God- Shiva. He is shown here as the King of Dance, balancing on one leg and surrounded by a ring of fire. Shiva is believed to be both the creator and destroyer of the world and I think that in this sculpture, a feeling of power has been captured in the work. For example, the drum is supposed to symbolise the beat of creation whereas the fire is to symbolise destruction. I really liked how the museum presented this statue because you could walk all the way around it and take in the beauty of the statue from different angles.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post about the Rijks museum and my favourite exhibits! That is the end of my posts about my time in Amsterdam. I am on my Easter holidays right now so I will have lots of time to blog.
Bye!
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