Leiden, Rome, Pompei, Leiden – 5/20/19 – 6/7/19

Monday – Tuesday

Marley escaped on our arrival. Captured hours later.

 

Cloud cover from East coast of England to within a few hundred feet altitude at Schiphol.

Stopped by Berkeley Heights to park the car at Ed’s house. Flight to Amsterdam left about 5:30 pm Monday 5/20. Arrived Amsterdam about 7 am Tuesday 5/21. Took a couple of naps, got phone chips, talked a bit, waited for Torrey and Jane who were flying in from Paris. Lunch with Jonathan and Nan at city hall. Torrey and Jane arrived 4 hours late due to weather. Dinner at Maredijk with the whole crew.

Wednesday – 5/22

Went to Den Haag with Torrey and Jane. Stopped for coffee in the Plein, a square just a short walk from Maritshuis Museum. Toured through the museum. Uncertain about Torrey’s level of engagement or interest in Dutch, mostly 16th and 17th century art. He seems permanently in a slight dissociative state of ironic distancing.

I revisited The Bull (1647) by Paulus Potter. Also expanded my collection of winter scenes and more cattle. Noticed people playing something involving sticks and round objects on the ice. Hockey?? No, that really was invented and codified by the Canadians.

Hendrick Avercamp, Ice Scene, 1610
Jan Steen, Couple in Bedchamber, ~1650
Joos de Momper II, Village in Winter, ~1600
Alert van der Neer, Scene on ice outside of city walls, ~1655
Paulus Potter, The Bull, 1647. 7’9” high by 11’1” wide

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Museum Bredius

Another bull hung in a stairwell. Jan Kobell II