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Mary Magdalene
Jan van Scorel, c. 1530, painting, SK-A-372
The woman is Mary Magdalen. A jar of ointment is her usual attribute, with which she is said to have tended Jesus’s feet. Van Scorel portrayed her as a seductive, lavishly dressed courtesan, a reference to her apparent origins as a prostitute. Her costume shows the influence of Italian painting on…
On display in room 0.6
The Massacre of the Innocents
Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, 1590, painting, SK-A-128
On display in room 2.1
The Seven Works of Mercy
Master of Alkmaar, 1504, painting, SK-A-2815
A town in Holland is the setting for a narrative strip showing how a good Christian should help the needy. In almost all the scenes, Christ appears among the onlookers. The scenes give a sense of town life around 1500. This is one of the many art works severely damaged when Protestants cleansed…
On display in room 0.4
Portrait of William I, Prince of…
Adriaen Thomasz. Key, c. 1579, painting, SK-A-3148
Of all the nobles in the Low Countries to join the revolt against the Spanish crown, the foremost was William of Orange (1533-1584). Raised at the court of Charles V, he was a consummate diplomat: hence his nickname, the Silent. He emerged as the leader of the insurrection against Spain. In 1580,…
On display in room 2.1
Self-portrait
Johan Gregor van der Schardt, c. 1573 - c. 1580, bust, BK-2000-17
On display in room 2.3
Clock and gunpowder horn
anonymous, c. 1590 - c. 1596, clockwork, NG-NM-7687
In 1596, Willem Barentsz, Jacob van Heemskerck and fifteen others spent the winter in an improvised shelter on the island of Nova Zembla off the north coast of Russia. Confined to their hut in the middle of the Polar winter, the men had no sense of night or day. A clock on the wall told the time,…
On display in room 2.9
Cabinet of a Militia Company
anonymous, c. 1520 - c. 1530, furniture, BK-KOG-656
On display in room 0.4
Book chest of Hugo de Groot
anonymous, c. 1600 - c. 1615, NG-KOG-1208
Traditionally, it was in this case that Hugo de Groot escaped from Loevestein Castle in 1621. He had been serving a life sentence there since 1619. The internationally renowned jurist De Groot (Grotius) had been arrested in 1618 as a political opponent of Prince Maurice. After his escape, De Groot…
On display in room 2.5
Table ornament
Wenzel Jamnitzer, 1549, table piece, BK-17040-A
This receptacle stood on the table on special occasions. Although it was never used for food, since it was far too precious. It was made for the city of Nuremberg in 1549 by Wenzel Jamnitzer, then a world-famous silversmith. Jamnitzer produced incredibly intricate work using a new method. All the…
On display in room 2.3
The Well-stocked Kitchen, with…
Joachim Bueckelaer, 1566, painting, SK-A-1451
It is not the profusion of vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry and kitchenware displayed here by these housemaids that forms the main theme of this painting. It is Jesus visiting Mary and Martha, shown almost as an aside in the distance. The contrast between foreground and background contains the moral…
On display in room 0.6