Dutch Dollhouse

Kat and I have been taking it super easy for the last two days.  It's amazing how tired you become by simply being in a foreign country.  When my sister was getting ready to study in Spain all last year, they warned her about being rather fatigued the first couple weeks from the stress of not knowing the language or the customs.  It's true.  Fatigued.  

Kat's sister is frantically completing her graduation design project that is due next Friday.  We have the house to ourselves and we've been taking full advantage by cooking Bratwurst and watching movies from her absent roommate's small video collection.  Last night it was War of the Worlds and the night before was The Contract, both of which got Kat to passionately yell at the screen "Run away you morons!  Giant alien is going to kill your asses!  Runnnnn!"  We were drinking a lot of 2 Euro wine that night.

During the day we went to the Rijksmuseum which is undergoing a huge restoration project for the main building and only a small portion is on display until completion in 2010.  They have the creme de la creme of their collection on display such as paintings by Vermeer and Rembrant.  One of my favorites was the ink on canvas below The Battle of Terheide by Williem van de Velde.  You can see the large version here.  Freaking amazing because it's this large scale canvas that is done with tons of little lines and it's just simply beautiful.  

The other amazing thing we saw were the Dutch dollhouses which are a history lesson in economic classes in themselves.  Popular during the 17th Century, they were commissioned by house owners, to be a direct replica of their own home and not playthings of the young.  Everything was exactly recreated to miniature scale: spoons, porcelain from China, wallpaper, clothing, dolls, heating pads.  The largest dollhouse they have on display right now was ordered by a wealthy Amsterdam woman who spent as much on this one replica below, as would cost to buy a nice home on one of the canals here in town.  You can see a larger scale picture right here.

Apparently the more dolls (down to the servants) and items you had in miniature, combined with the level of skill with which they were executed, the more wealthy you were. The dollhouses seem to be a more direct reflection on your yearly income then your actual house. There are more detail photos and more info about them here.

Oh, art travelers tidbit: Depending on how many museums you want to go to, it might be worth while to get the MuseumKaart which gets you into the Amsterdam exhibitions for either free or really cheap.  The catch is that to get it dirt cheap you have to be under 25 and a student, in which case you'll only have to shell out 15 euros.  They are valid for one year if you plan on coming back to this fair country for art hopping.