TRAVEL TUESDAY 500 - KINDERDIJK, THE NETHERLANDS

“There isn't a single windmill owner in Holland who doesn't have a second job, for when there is no wind.” - Johnny Ball

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Kinderdijk is a town in the municipality of Molenlanden, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located about 15 km east of Rotterdam. Kinderdijk is situated in the Alblasserwaard polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers.

Kinderdijk meaning “Child’s Dike”, first originated its name in 1421 from a legend where a wave in a flooded polder was said to have washed ashore a cradle that contained a sleeping baby, safe and sound and not harmed by the flood waters.

To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. They have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. The area is very touristic and visitors can explore the windmills, take boat rides, and learn about the history of water management in the area.

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Last time on My Sunday Best, James in Melbourne posted this photo, complemented by a great poem. Please visit his blog to read it!

TRAVEL TUESDAY 491 - ZAANDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

“To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.” - Daniel Libeskind

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Zaandam town centre has been radically revamped on the basis of an urban development plan by Sjoerd Soeters. Soeters reinstated the historical street layout, reconstructed an urban waterway and reintroduced atmosphere into the somewhat impersonal and dull town centre, employing magnified stylistic features of the historical Zaanse Schans village. The plan by Soeters incorporated a new hotel, the Inntel Hotel Zaandam. This can be reached by a quick and efficient 15-minute train trip from central Amsterdam.

The hotel, which stands on the Provincialeweg, is definitely the new centre’s eye-catcher. The building with 160 rooms and a conference complex was constructed in part on a viaduct. The colossal, twelve-storey-high hotel tower, essentially square in plan, is a monumental stacking and interpretation of various green-painted house types typical of the Zaan region, ranging from a stately notary’s dwelling to worker’s cottages. ‘The Blue House’, inspired by the work Claude Monet painted at Zaandam in 1871, is the ultimate attention-grabber. The overall result is striking. The varied fenestration, broad protruding sections and bay windows, and decorative white ridge-pieces lend depth and an expressive relief to the façade.

Wilfried van Winden, the architect, was born in Delft on 24 November 1955. He studied architecture at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), graduating in 1987. He co-founded the Molenaar & Van Winden Architecten bureau in Delft in 1985. Van Winden left this practice in January 2009 to establish a new, independent bureau WAM architecten. Besides his design for the Inntel Hotel, Wilfried van Winden's major projects include the Essalam Mosque (2010) in Rotterdam, De Oriënt residential complex (2011) in the Transvaal district of The Hague, and De Marquant residential development (2007) in Breda.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 300 - LEIDEN, HOLLAND

“By not going to school I learned that the world is a beautiful place and needs to be discovered.” - Rutger Hauer

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Leiden is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 122,565, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with around 190,000 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Old Rhine, at a distance of some 20 kilometres from The Hague to its south and some 40 km from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of the Kaag Lakes (Kagerplassen) lies just to the northeast of Leiden.

A university city since 1575, Leiden houses Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, and Leiden University Medical Centre. It is twinned with Oxford, the location of the United Kingdom's oldest university. Over 1994/95 I spent several months in the Netherlands engaged in various academic/research activities. I lived in Leiden for five weeks, which was a wonderful time for me. I spent a great deal of my spare time cycling around the city and environs visiting the grand old buildings, notable museums, beauty spots and historical sites.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY 268 - LEIDEN, HOLLAND

“Thus I am in Holland, the kingdom of things, great principality of objects. In Dutch, schoen means beautiful and at the same time clean, as if neatness was raised to the dignity of a virtue.” ― Zbigniew Herbert

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Leiden is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 122,565, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with around 190,000 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Old Rhine, at a distance of some 20 kilometres from The Hague to its south and some 40 km from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of the Kaag Lakes (Kagerplassen) lies just to the northeast of Leiden.

A university city since 1575, Leiden houses Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, and Leiden University Medical Centre. It is twinned with Oxford, the location of the United Kingdom’s oldest university. Over 1994/95 I spent several months in the Netherlands engaged in various academic/research activities. I lived in Leiden for five weeks, which was a wonderful time for me. I spent a great deal of my spare time cycling around the city and environs visiting the grand old buildings, notable museums, beauty spots and historical sites.

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ART SUNDAY - CORNELIS SAFTLEVEN

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” – William Shakespeare 

Cornelis Saftleven (c. 1607 in Gorinchem – 1 June 1681 in Rotterdam) was a Dutch painter who worked in a great variety of genres. Known in particular for his rural genre scenes, his range of subjects was very wide and included portraits, farmhouse interiors, rural and beach scenes, landscapes with cattle, history paintings, scenes of Hell, allegories, satires and illustrations of proverbs.

 Cornelis Saftleven was born into a family of artists. He learned to paint from his father Herman, along with his brothers Abraham and Herman Saftleven the Younger. He lived for a time in Utrecht with his brother. After training in Rotterdam, Cornelis likely travelled to Antwerp around 1632. Rubens is known to have added figures in paintings of Saftleven before 1637. When Rubens died in 1640 there were eight Saftlevens in his collection, four of which with figures added by Rubens.

Among his earliest works are portraits and peasant interiors influenced by Adriaen Brouwer. By 1634 Cornelis was in Utrecht, where his brother Herman Saftleven the Younger was living. The brothers began painting stable interiors, a new subject in peasant genre painting. He also made a double-portrait of himself and his brother in the Two Musicians (c. 1633; Academy of Fine Arts Vienna). By 1637 Cornelis had returned to Rotterdam. In 1648 he married Catharina van der Heyden, who died in 1654. The year after her death, he married Elisabeth van der Avondt. He became dean of the guild of Saint Luke of Rotterdam in 1667. His pupils included Abraham Hondius, Ludolf de Jongh and Egbert Lievensz van der Poel.

Approximately two hundred of Saftleven’s oil paintings and five hundred of his drawings still survive. His subject matter covered various subjects, including genre works, portraits, beach scenes, and biblical and mythological themes. His images of hell as well as his satires and allegories are considered to be his most important contributions to Dutch painting. Related in motif to these hell scenes are the numerous versions of the Temptation of St Anthony. Saftleven excelled at painting animals and often portrayed animals as active characters, occasionally with a hidden allegorical role. As a draughtsman, Saftleven is best known for his black chalk drawings of single figures, usually young men, and his studies of animals, which show Roelandt Savery’s influence.

The painting above is his “Witches’ Sabbath”.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

MUSIC SATURDAY - CAROLUS HACQUART

“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.” - Edward Elgar 

Carolus Hacquart (the latinised form of his original name: Carel Hacquart) (c. 1640 - after 1686) was a Flemish composer and musician. He became one of the most important 17th-century composers in the Dutch Republic and possibly also worked in England.

Hacquart was born in Bruges around 1640. He received his education, comprising Latin and composition as well as viola da gamba, lute and organ, most probably in his native town. Records referring to a “Charges Akkert” who was accepted in September 1650 as a choirboy in the St. Salvator’s Church in Bruges suggest he may have been born later than 1640. His brother Philips is accepted the same year as a choirboy in another church in Bruges. At the end of the 1650s both brothers are recorded in Ghent where they are choirboys in different churches.

Attracted by the growth of musical life of the rich citizens of the Dutch Republic, his brother Philips moved to Amsterdam around 1670 where he was joined by Carolus a few years later. It seems the brothers never held official positions and both gained a living as free-lance musicians. In Calvinist Holland there was little interest in church music and the aristocracy generally was not supportive of the arts. The brothers therefore became musicians and music teachers to the well-off Dutch burghers.

Carolus moved in 1679 to The Hague, where he taught and organised concerts with the support of the elderly Constantijn Huygens, who was the chief counsellor of William III, the stadtholder and future king of England. Thanks to Huygens’ recommendation of Hacquart to the stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Hacquart could organise weekly concerts in the famous Mauritshuis. Hacquart was also an organist at the Old-Catholic church of The Hague.

To earn a living, Hacquart gave music classes to many wealthy patricians such as lawyers and other notables who made music in their spare time. One of his students was Willem Hoogendorp, the future mayor of Rotterdam to whom he dedicated his sonatas Harmonia Parnassia Sonatarum. In 1686 Hacquart composed 12 suites under the title Chelys which he dedicated to two of his students, the lawyers Pittenius and Kuysten. The words Chelys is Greek for ‘lyre’. In the 17th century it became the Latin term for any stringed instrument but in particular the viola da gamba.

Little is known about his life after 1686 and there is no trace of his life in the Dutch Republic after that date. Based on the possible identification with a person with a similar name (Charles Hakert) who was identified as a native of Holland in a document dated 16 July 1697, it is believed that he had then moved to England. The fact that the composer Gottfried Finger who worked at the English court owned a copy of Hacquart’s Chelys suggests that the two composers may have worked together in England. Hacquart died possibly in 1701.

Hacquart is the composer of the first opera in the Dutch language with the title De Triomfeerende Min (Triumphant Love). The opera was based on a text by Dirk Buysero (nl) which he wrote on the occasion of the Treaty of Nijmegen of 1678. The opera was not performed during Hacquart’s lifetime. The first known performance dates to 1920 when the piece was performed in Arnhem. Unfortunately most of the music of this opera has to be considered lost.

Three other publications of his music have survived. His first published work is the Cantiones Sacrae, which consists of religious pieces for vocal soloists, choir and instrumentalists, which could be sung by both Catholics and Protestants (1674). His second published work is the Harmonia Parnassia Sonatarum, which is a collection of 10 sonatas for two or three violins and basso continuo (1686).

His third published work Chelys (1686) consists of 12 suites that can be performed by one viol, two viols or one viol with a basso continuo accompaniment. Only one copy of the gamba part of Chelys survives. The bass part is lost. The work of Hacquart belongs to the best music composed in the 17th century Netherlands. In particular, the instrumental sonatas from his opus 2, Harmonia Parnassia Sonatarum stand out. Copies of Hacquart’s works are kept in the library of Durham Cathedral, England.

Here are some sonatas of Chelys, performed by Guido Balestracci (Viola da Gamba), Nicola Dal Maso (Violone), Rafael Bonavita (Archlute), Massimilano Raschietti (Continuo).
Suite no 6 in D major
Suite no 10 in A minor
Suite no 8 in E minor
Suite no 12 in C major
Suite no 11 in G minor
Suite no 9 in F major

TRAVEL TUESDAY #78 - DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS

“What land is this? Yon pretty town Is Delft, with all its wares displayed: The pride, the market-place, the crown And centre of the Potter’s trade.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

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Delft is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, to the north of Rotterdam and south of The Hague. Delft is known for its historic town centre with canals, Delft Blue pottery, the Delft University of Technology, painter Johannes Vermeer and scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, and its association with the royal House of Orange-Nassau.

 The city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the ‘Delf’, which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court. From a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century (1246) received its charter.

The town’s association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572. At the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years’ War. By then Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and it was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled.

 After the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584, by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, the family’s traditional burial place in Breda was still in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day.

 The painter Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in Delft. Vermeer used Delft streets and home interiors as the subject or background of his paintings. Several other famous painters lived and worked in Delft at that time, such as Pieter de Hoogh, Carel Fabritius, Nicolaes Maes, Gerard Houckgeest and Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet. They all were members of the Delft School. The Delft School is known for its images of domestic life, views of households, church interiors, courtyards, squares and the streets of Delft. The painters also produced pictures showing historic events, flower paintings, portraits for patrons and the court, and decorative pieces of art.

The city centre retains a large number of monumental buildings, whereas in many streets there are canals of which the borders are connected by typical bridges, altogether making this city a notable tourist destination.

Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue, is blue and white pottery made in and around Delft in the Netherlands and the tin-glazed pottery made in the Netherlands from the 16th century. Delftware in the latter sense is one of the types of tin-glazed earthenware or faience in which a white glaze is applied, usually decorated with metal oxides. It also forms part of the worldwide family of blue and white pottery, using variations of the plant-based decoration first developed in 14th century Chinese porcelain, and in great demand in Europe. Delftware includes pottery objects of all descriptions such as plates, ornaments and tiles. The most highly-regarded period of production is about 1640–1740.

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TRAVEL TUESDAY #74 - HAARLEM, HOLLAND

“The Dutch are a very practical people.” - Famke Janssen 

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Haarlem (predecessor of Harlem in the English language) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland and is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe. Haarlem had a population of 155,758 in 2014. It is a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam, and many residents commute to the country’s capital for work. 

Haarlem was granted city status or stadsrechten in 1245, although the first city walls were not built until 1270. The modern city encompasses the former municipality of Schoten as well as parts that previously belonged to Bloemendaal and Heemstede. Apart from the city, the municipality of Haarlem also includes the western part of the village of Spaarndam. Newer sections of Spaarndam lie within the neighbouring municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude.

There are several museums in Haarlem. The Teylers Museum lies on the Spaarne River and is the oldest museum of the Netherlands. Its main subjects are art, science and natural history, and it owns a number of works by Michelangelo and Rembrandt. Another museum is the Frans Hals Museum of fine arts, with its main location housing Dutch master paintings, and its exhibition halls on the Grote Markt housing a gallery for modern art called De Hallen. Also on the Grote Markt, in the cellar of the Vleeshal is the Archeologisch Museum Haarlem, while across the square on Saturdays, the Hoofdwacht building is open with exhibitions on Haarlem history. Other museums are Het Dolhuys (a museum of psychiatry), the Ten Boom Museum (a hiding place for Jews in World War II) and the Historisch Museum Haarlem, across from the Frans Hals Museum.

Every year in April the bloemencorso (flower parade) takes place. Floats decorated with flowers drive from Noordwijk to Haarlem, where they are exhibited for one day. In the same month there is also a funfair organised on the Grote Markt and the Zaanenlaan in Haarlem-Noord. Other festivals are held on the Grote Markt as well, in particular the annual Haarlem Jazz & More (formerly known as Haarlem Jazzstad), a music festival, and Haarlem Culinair, a culinary event, as well as the biannual Haarlemse Stripdagen (Haarlem comic days). Bevrijdingspop is a music festival to celebrate the Dutch liberation from the Nazis after World War II. It is held every year on 5 May, the day that the Netherlands were liberated in 1945, at the Haarlemmerhout. At the same location, the Haarlemmerhoutfestival is also held every year, which is a music and theatre festival.

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ART SUNDAY - JEAN HEY

“Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It's the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual alone can make something with not just his own hands, but brains, imagination, heart maybe.” - Philip Guston

Jean Hey (or Jean Hay) (flourished ca. 1475 – ca. 1505), now generally identified with the artist formerly known as the Master of Moulins, was an Early Netherlandish painter working in France and the Duchy of Burgundy, and associated with the court of the Dukes of Bourbon.

Little is known about Hey, whose style has led to speculation that he may have studied under Hugo van der Goes. It is possible that he spent his last years in Paris. Hey’s most well-known work, the triptych in Moulins Cathedral (see above), dates from the end of 15th century. The central panel shows the Madonna and Child adored by angels, and is flanked by portraits of the duke Pierre II and the duchess Anne de Beaujeu with their daughter Suzanne. The triptych’s state of preservation is generally excellent, although at some time before the 1830s the top and bottom of the wings were trimmed (the left wing more at the bottom and the right wing more at the top).

Until the late 20th century, the name of the painter of the Moulins Triptych was unknown, although art historians identified a number of other works that were evidently by the same hand. The first monograph on the Master of Moulins, written in 1961 by Madeleine Huillet d’Istria, argued that this artist did not actually exist, and that more than 12 different artists were responsible for the corpus of works traditionally ascribed to him.

The Master’s identity was established after an inscription was found on the reverse of a damaged painting, “Christ with Crown of Thorns” (1494) in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, identifying the artist as Jean Hey, Teutonicus (“German”, which at that date included Flemings) and pictor egregius (“the famous painter”), and identifying the patron as Jean Cueillette, who was secretary to the King and an associate of the Bourbon family.

Stylistic similarities link this painting to the works attributed to the Master of Moulins. The Master of Moulins appears to have been the court painter for the Bourbons, and from a surviving account for 1502-03, it is clear that the court painter’s name was Jean; other candidates once considered plausible, such as Jean Perréal and Jean Prévost (an artist from Lyon who worked in stained glass, have proven untenable in the light of subsequent research.

ART SUNDAY - ISAAC ISRAELS

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” - Edgar Degas

Isaac Lazarus Israels was a Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionist movement. Isaac Israels was born in 1865 into an Orthodox Jewish family in Amsterdam. In 1871 the family moved to The Hague, where his father Jozef Israels (1824-1911) was already a well-respected painter. Between 1880-1882 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, where he showed a remarkable talent for drawing at an early age and started as an artist in The Hague.

It was not long until his portraits, which were painted in an impressionistic style similar to his father’s, were held in high esteem. However, the young Israels did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps and returned to Amsterdam in 1887. His goal was simple: To develop his own, unique, painterly style, recording an impression in an exceptionally quick manner. Israels found that it was not minute details and perfection that were most important but rather capturing the essence of the subject.

Israels moved to Paris in 1904, establishing his studio at 10 rue Alfred Stevens, near Montmartre and just yards away from the studio of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec whom he admired, as he also did Edgar Degas. As in Amsterdam, he painted the Parisian specific motifs: the public parks, cafés, cabarets and bistros, as well as such subjects as fairgrounds and circus acrobats. Likewise he sought out the fashion houses Paquin and Drecoll to continue his studies of the world of fashion. However, he only exhibited once in this period, in 1909.

At the outbreak of the First World War he was living in London, where continued painting motifs specific to the city he lived, such as buses and famous London streets such as Regent Street, as well as finding new subjects in horse-riding at Rotten Row and in ballerinas and boxers. He returned to Holland for the duration of the war, living alternately in The Hague, Amsterdam and Scheveningen, where he worked primarily as a portrait painter. Following the war, Israels visited Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm and London.

He spent the years 1921-1922 travelling in India and the Dutch East Indies, sketching and painting the vibrant life of South East Asia and notably the gamelan players of Bali. On his return, he settled at Koninginnegracht 2, The Hague, his deceased parents’ home, where he remained for the rest of his life, nevertheless making regular trips abroad to London, Italy and the French Riviera. At the age of 63, he won a Gold Medal at the 1928 Olympic Games for his painting Red Rider, an art competition then being part of the games.

He died in The Hague on 7 October 1934, aged 70, as a result of a street accident a few days before. His partner at that time was Sophie de Vries.

The painting above is his “Hat Studio”, a good example of his rapid, impressionistic style where the artist’s prime concern is to capture a moment and give the viewer an idea of the way in which this tableau registered in his mind. The milliners are busy at work, surrounded by hats and taking central place is the fitting of a bit of trim on a hat worn by one of the women. This is an appealing work because of its immediacy, its free and fresh colour and brushwork, and its deceptively simple composition and execution.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #35 - AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND

“In Amsterdam, the river and canals have been central to city life for the last four centuries.” - Janet Echelon

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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 840,486 within the city proper, 1,337,743 in the urban area, and 2,431,000 in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country, and is also North Holland’s largest city. It comprises much of the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, with a population of approximately 7 million.

Amsterdam’s name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin as a dam of the river Amstel. Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age (17th century), a result of its innovative developments in trade. During that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were planned and built. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered an alpha world city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) study group. The city is also the cultural capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the world’s 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city.

In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city in which to live by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and 12th globally on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer . Famous Amsterdam residents included Anne Frank the diarist, the artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city centre.

Amsterdam’s main attractions, including its historic canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam Museum, its red-light district, and its many cannabis coffee shops draw more than 5 million international visitors annually.

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ART SUNDAY - BOSCH

“Sensuality without love is a sin; love without sensuality is worse than a sin.” - José Bergamín

Hieronymus Bosch (ca 1450–1516) was a European painter of the late Middle Ages. His two most famous works are “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (illustrated above) and “The Temptation of St. Anthony.” His work utilises striking and sometimes seemingly surreal iconography. Bosch painted several large-scale triptychs, as well as smaller panel paintings. Throughout his career, he used his art to portray the sins and follies of humankind and to show the consequences of these actions. He died in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1516.

Born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Brabant (now in the Netherlands), around 1450, Hieronymus Bosch remains one of the art world’s great enigmas. Little is known about his life, and the only clues have the few traces of him found in local records. Even his name is a bit misleading. He was born Jeroen van Aeken and took his professional name, in part, from the truncated form of his hometown’s name.

Bosch came from an artistic family (his father, uncles and his brother were all painters by trade). It is believed that while he was growing up he was trained by a relative. Around 1480 or 1481, he married Alety Goyaerts den Meervenne. His wife came from a wealthy family, and he enjoyed a comfortable life and improved social status through this union. A Catholic, Bosch joined the Brotherhood of Our Lady, a local religious organisation devoted to the Virgin Mary, around 1486. Some of his first commissions came through the Brotherhood, but, unfortunately, none of those works survived.

Known for his dark and disturbing visions, Bosch took a critical look at the world around in several of his works. With “The Cure of Folly” (ca 1475-1480), he poked fun of the misguided medical practices of the day. Bosch rebuked those who spent their lives seeking earthly pleasures in “The Ship of Fools” (ca 1490-1500).

Throughout his career, Bosch focussed much of his attention to exploring religious themes. “The Haywain” (ca 1500-02), a triptych, first shows Adam and Eve in its interior left panel. The centre panel features both clergy and peasants engaged in sinful behaviour. The right panel provides a gruesome illustration of where that type of behaviour leads: Hell! In 1504, Bosch painted “The Last Judgment”, which illustrated the fall of humanity. He starts the triptych with the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The remaining two interior panels show the world's descent into sin, violence and chaos.

Bosch painted another triptych, “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” (ca 1505-06), a short time later. He shows the saint resisting the efforts of the devil to make him surrender to evil. There is an attempt to seduce Saint Anthony and then means of force are tried on him, but he shown in the final panel being led away by a group of believers. “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (ca 1510-15) is one of Bosch’s later works. Again depicting the decline of the world through sin, primarily lust, a beautiful garden becomes a dark, fiery nightmare in the last panel of this triptych. This work, like so many of his pieces, serves as a visual lecture on morality.

Bosch died in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in August 1516 (the exact date of his death is unknown, but a funeral mass was held for him on August 9). While he enjoyed some success during his lifetime, he attracted an even grander fan soon after his death. King Philip II of Spain became a serious collector of Bosch’s work, and “The Garden of Earthly Delights” is said to have been hung in his bedroom to remind the Spanish monarch to stay on a righteous path. Today, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid holds many of Bosch’s works.

MUSIC SATURDAY - PIETER HELLENDAAL

“Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.” - MartinLuther

Pieter Hellendaal (Born: April 1, 1721 –Died; April 19, 1799, aged 78) was an Anglo-Dutch composer, organist and violinist. He was sometimes distinguished with the suffix “The Elder”, after the maturity of his musician son, Pieter Hellendaal the Younger. At age 30, he migrated to England where he lived for the last 48 of his 78 years. He was one of the most famous composers of Dutch origin in the 18th century.

At the age of eleven Pieter was appointed as an organist of the church of St Nicolas in Utrecht. Five years later his family moved to Amsterdam where he studied with Tartini. By 1743 he was playing the violin in public performances and earned the right to publish music by 1744. For a short time Hellendaal was a student at the University in Leiden and even made appearances at The Hague.

By 1751 he had left for London where he was afforded ample opportunites to perfrom and compose. In the performance of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” Hellendaal performed solo music between acts. The composition “Glory be to the Father” (a canon) received an annual award from The Gentlemen's Catch Club and contemporaneously his six sonatas for violin and continuo were published.

When he was age forty, in 1762, Pieter moved to Cambridge, where the musical enthusiasm in academic circles around the University allowed him to settle down for the rest of his life. First, he was hired as an organist for Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was able to teach, give concerts, and compose. Fifteen years later, in 1777, he was appointed organist in the Chapel of Peterhouse where he worked until he died 37 years later in 1799, at age 78.

The characteristics of Hellendaal’s music included typical conventions of Italian Baroque music. He assiduously followed the practice of thoroughbass with single thematic devices. Violin sonatas followed the slow-fast-fast, three movement structures of Tartini and his concertos were dominated by fugues and liberation of the viola part.

Peter Hellendaal, a.k.a. “The Younger” was born circa 1756 in London and given his father’s name. He became a violinist, clarinetist, and arranger/composer. He actively collaborated in his father’s self-publishing during the 1790s, helping send to market a stream of various musical publications. For example, to serve the needs of parish churches, he selected and arranged for publication pieces from the Elder’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns. This publication also included one of Peter’s own compositions. The last notice of Peter’s life was from 17 April 1801 when he was the soloist in a benefit concert which performed a concerto written by his father. He died later that year, at the age of 45, outliving his father by only two years.

Here are six Cello Sonatas by Pieter Hellendaal the Elder (op. 5, 1780), played by soloist Jaap ter Linden, Ton Koopman, harpsichord continuo and Ageet Zweistra, cello continuo.

No.1 - 0:00

No.2 - 8:28

No.5 - 19:45

No.6 - 31:33

No.7 - 43:52

No.8 - 54:42