Klavecimbeldeksel met een Allegorie op Amsterdam als centrum van de wereldhandel

Isaacsz., Pieter Fransz. (1569-1625)

Mander, Karel van, I (1548-1606) (after a work of)

Item type:

musical instrument or object

Date of creation:

1606

Height:

79.0 cm  (31 1/8 in.)

Width:

165.0 cm  (64 15/16 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on wood

Place of creation:

Amsterdam

Additional titles

Description

In 1604 Jan Pietersz. Sweelinck (1562-1621) organist of the city of Amsterdam, went to Antwerp to order a harpsichord from the famous Ruckers Family. Soon after the instrument was delivered the city council of Amsterdam asked the artist Pieter Isaacsz. to paint the lid. For the design they asked to the writer and painter Karel van Mander who invented this allegory of Amsterdam as the center of the world. The personification of the city is seated beside Neptune, the god of the sea. Two female figures are giving to the city a ship and a pearl collier as symbols of richness and of the glory on the seas. Her left hand is resting on a celestial globe. On the right of the woman are two mariners with instrumentations for navigation.
The city council wanted the new harpsichord to be the emblem of the city's trade and colonial enterprise. For the honorable task to paint the harpsichord Pieter Isaacsz received no less than 300 guilders, an amount significantly higher than the price that was paid for the instrument itself. Karel van Mander received in 1606 of the city council a coin worth 16 guilders and 14 pennies, maybe for his collaboration for designing the composition.

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Miedema, Hessel. "Het stadsklavecimbel van Amsterdam", Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 48/4 (2000) 258-279.

RIdIM record id

2946