National Heroes, Local Memory and Dutch Identity in the Museum 2
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Jesica Versichele S1634119 [email protected] First Reader: Dr. Marike Keblusek Second Reader: Dr. Nana Leigh MA Arts and Culture Museums and Collections Academic year: 2015/2016 National Heroes, Local Memory and Dutch Identity in the Museum 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: HOW THE MUSEUMS OF HOLLAND SHAPE CULTURAL MEMORY SECTION 1.1 GEOGRAPHY SECTION 1.2 LOCATION AND EXPERIENCE SECTION 1.3 CHRONOLOGY SECTION 1.4 INTERACTIVITY CHAPTER TWO: WILLIAM OF ORANGE: THE HERO, THE MAN, THE SYMBOL_____ SECTION 2.1 ORANGE AS NATIONAL HERO IN THE RIJKSMUSEUM SECTION 2.2 THE BIOGRAPHY OF ORANGE IN THE PRINCENHOF DELFT SECTION 2.3 ORANGE AS A SYMBOL IN OUD WEST THUIS BEST CHAPTER THREE: LOCAL IDENTITY IN ALKMAAR AND LEIDEN SECTION 3.1 THE STEDELIJK MUSEUM ALKMAAR, THE “VICTORY” AND LOCAL IDENTITY SECTION 3.2 THE LAKENHAL AND RENEGOTIATIG LOCAL MYTHS IN LEIDEN CONCLUSION APPENDIX A: LIST OF FIGURES BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 Introduction The Dutch Revolt against the Spanish began in the year 1566 with the iconoclastic fury and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The people of the Low Countries stood up against the Spanish for political, economic and religious regions. The result of their struggle was the formation of the Dutch Republic, a nation that was unique in Europe in that it was not beholden to a king or the church. It was a republic of burghers who were free to trade, to organize civic institutions and elect their government officials. This time in the history of the Netherlands is referred to as the Dutch Golden Age, a time of unprecedented prosperity and creative and intellectual flowering. For the Dutch, this time period is a source of national pride and identity. The achievements of this age represent the high points of Dutch art and culture. This age is also glorified in Dutch museums. The most glorious testament to the art of the Dutch Golden Age is the Eregalerij or “Gallery of Honor” in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Here paintings by the great masters of the Golden Age are enshrined and adored by thousands of visitors each year. Through the hindsight of history, it appears to the modern observer that the struggle, hardship and sacrifice of the Dutch people during the Revolt led to this pinnacle of artistic achievement, this full expression of national character in the Dutch school of art. Museums, as I shall elaborate on, certainly play up this narrative. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that historical forces have played a significant role is what gets remembered and what gets forgotten in regards to an historical period. This in turn has a bearing on what objects museums keep and display and how these objects are interpreted for the visitor. In this thesis I will explore how historical forces shape the sense of modern Dutch identity and how this manifests in museum display. Specifically, I will explore the question; How do museums interpret objects from Dutch Revolt and Golden Age as conveying information about Dutch national identity? I argue that, in their capacity as educative institutions that “translate” the past to make it understandable in the present, Dutch museums transmit information about national identity by drawing the visitor’s attention to objects related to national heroes and events of national significance. This can also be observed at the local level, where the municipal museums of North and South Holland use the events of the Dutch Revolt and Golden Age to draw a sense of local identity. Yet this is not a direct dialogue between past and present. Historical forces, such as the nationalist movement of the 19th century, affected what kind of objects were collected and put on display. Objects related to national heroes, for example, acquired national significance inasmuch as the people they were related to demonstrated some aspect of 4 national character. The national museum of the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum, was founded in 1808. The building that currently houses the Rijksmuseum, with its chapel-like Eregalerij, was built in 1885. The municipal museums in the provinces of North and South Holland that currently house collections of Golden Age objects were also founded in the second half of the 19th century. 19th century collecting practices thus affected the makeup of collections in these museums. Though the information cards and display cases around these objects has changed over the past 150 years, the objects remain the same. Another historical force that affects museum display is the high level of urbanization in the Low Countries since the Middle Ages. The strength of Dutch cities in early modern times fostered a strong sense of local identity. This sense of local identity and pride can be observed in the region-specific collecting practices of Holland’s municipal museums. To demonstrate how museums use art and artefacts as rhetorical objects, I will use case studies from the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam and five municipal museums in the provinces of North and South Holland; The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, the Lakenhal in Leiden, The Westfries Museum in Hoorn, and the Princenhof in Delft. Examples from temporary exhibitions held at the Amsterdam Museum, the Vermeer Centrum in Delft and an archeological display in the Archaeological Center of Castricum will also briefly be discussed. For my methodology I will compare and contrast the presentation of particular subjects in these museums. I will explain how they interpret objects or groups of objects in the exhibits themselves, the museum's websites and museum publications and official statements. To do this, I will give a general overview of the exhibit’s message and then discuss a few individual objects that the museums combine to form a narrative about Dutch national history and identity The theoretical discourse I will employ for this thesis focuses on myths. The word myth can be defined as “a traditional, typically ancient story dealing with…ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society”. 1 This definition of myth overlaps with the subject matter of historical museums. Museums tell stories about a societies’ ideals and customs through objects. People visit museums on vacation to learn about another region or country, who their national heroes were and how life was like for the people in that country in the past. Museums mythologize objects in the sense 1 American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. S.v. "myth." Retrieved June 15 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/myth 5 that they use the object as a stand in for, or illustration of, a person, group of people or event of historical significance. In a myth there is always a storyteller. In the case of the museum this is the curator. In the Netherlands especially, museums tend to be nation-focused as opposed to other countries where national museums are more internationally oriented in their collecting and display practices.2 The Dutch museum, therefore, is an excellent place to analyze national and local myths. The British historical sociologist, Anthony D. Smith (b.1939), is one of the most important theorists of the ethno-symbolist theory of nationalism. This theory emphasizes the role of myths in forming national identity and revolves around the concept of what Smith calls the “ethnie” or the “ethnic community” that forms the basis of a nation. Ethnies consist of six elements; a collective and proper name, a myth of common ancestry, shared historical memories, one or more differentiating elements of common culture, association with a specific homeland and a sense of solidarity among a majority of the population.3 Smith asserts that ethnies could have existed in pre-modern, even ancient times. 4 Nationalist sentiment is given power through the myths and symbols of the national past. The narrative can be altered to make history more inclusive for groups such as women and minorities.5 However, in each ethnic community there is a limit to how much an ethnie can change to accommodate new people and customs.6 In the book Myths and Memories of the Nation Smith identifies the components of ethnic myths, myths that are unique to each culture yet to fall into a few categories when compared with myths from other cultures. For example, many cultures have a “myth of the heroic age” in which a group of people of an ethnic are freed from the tyranny of another ethnic group and then go on to build a prosperous, flourishing society. Smith gives the ancient example of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and the creation of a “Golden Age” under King David.7 These liberation and Golden Age myths can be used by later, more modern societies, as inspiration for nationalist sentiment, especially when it comes to the conception of the 19th century romantic hero. Smith gives the example of the people of 19th century Greece likening the heroes of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman 2 Aaronsson and Elgenius, 1. 3 Smith 1990, 21. 4 McCrone in Bennett and Frow, 324. Smith stands in opposition to the modernist theory of nationalism which asserts that nations can only exist in the conditions of industrial modernity. For a description of the different theories of nationalism see McCrone in Bennett and Frow, 322 and Bell, 67-9. 5 Smith 1999, 9. 6 Smith 1990, 25. 7 Smith 1999, 65. 6 Empire (1821-32) to the heroes of the Iliad.8 Smith’s description of the “myth of the heroic age” has parallels with how museums treat the Dutch Revolt and Golden Age.