In Jan Micker’s astonishing mid-17th century painting, “A Bird’s-Eye View of Amsterdam,” the artist reproduces the city as seen from above in near-photographic detail but with the added, painterly effect of cloud-dispersed sunlight spilling over the city’s canals, streets, and rooftops. Micker was working from an even older work, made by Cornelis Anthonisz in 1538 — which doesn’t even begin to answer the question of how he (or Anthonisz) did it. Hot air balloon?
“Pride of Place,” a survey of 17th-century Dutch cityscapes that comes to the National Gallery of Art following a premiere run in The Hague, is full of such delicious mysteries.
The show brings together 48 paintings and 23 assorted maps and atlases that celebrate the beauty and sophistication of the cities of the Dutch Republic at its peak. Holland was an economic powerhouse in the mid-1600s, and the majority of its populace comprised city-dwellers. The metropolises of Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft and The Hague all jostled to affirm their eminence by hiring the master painters of the age — including Jan Beerstraten, Jan van der Heyden and, to a lesser degree, Jacob van Ruisdael — to make their portraits. The emphasis on the city as a subject, rather than simply a backdrop, was new. As one might expect, the artists presented their subjects in idealized or nostalgic versions. Occasionally, the artists depicted the city during an age earlier than the one in which the painting was made, and they always showed the streets implausibly free of trash or crowds. In at least one case, van der Heyden borrows a church from another city altogether, proving that his artistic license was in order.
Most of these works are believed to have been public commissions. Jan van Goyen’s stunning 15-foot-wide “View of The Hague From the Southeast” hung in The Hague’s city hall for more than 300 years. This show marks the massive panorama’s first trip outside of The Netherlands. It wasn’t even in the version of this exhibit that opened last October in The Hague, because it was just too big to fit. (The Dutch show, however, included “View of Delft,” a Johannes Vermeer masterwork that isn’t at the National Gallery.)
Sensuous and brilliantly executed, these paintings would be appealing even if they were merely the 17th-century equivalent of billboards funded by the local tourism bureau. Their hyper-real textures make them a feast for not just the eyes but for all the senses: Gazing into them, you’ll hear the church bells and feel the sea spray of the port and smell the odors from fish market (in a good way).
Where “Pride of Place” enters another realm is where it forces you to think about perspective and the subjectivity of perception. After Amsterdam’s Town Hall burned to the ground in 1652 (Beerstraten captured the blaze on canvas), it was rebuilt as a grand, ornate white edifice that the Dutch considered to be the eighth wonder of the world. A 1667 van der Heyden shows us the building from a harsh angle that makes its cupola look almost comically distorted. But as National Gallery curator and exhibition mastermind Arthur Wheelock points out, standing very close to the painting near its lower right corner seems to slide the cupola magically into place.
Records of the painting’s sale to a Medici nobleman note that the artist included some kind of viewing device in the deal to help the Medici see the painting from precisely the vantage point he intended. Clearly, van der Heyden wanted a captive audience. Nearly 350 years later, he’s still got one.
If you go
“Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes in the Golden Age”
Where: National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
When: Through May 3
Info: Free; 202-737-4215; nga.gov
