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Nicholas was born in Patras around the year 280. It immediately becomes clear that this is a special child: little Nicholas stands upright in his bath water with folded hands and as an infant he refuses to receive breast milk from his mother on fast days. There is no other way; pious Nicholas becomes bishop; … Read more
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Of the four evangelists, only Matthew describes the maternity visit received by Jesus and his parents in Bethlehem. An unnamed number of magicians or wise men from the East follow a star that shows them the way to the newborn King of the Jews. Only a few verses, which appeal enormously to the imagination of … Read more
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The tulip season opens today. This year unfortunately no sea of flowers on Dam Square. It will be the harvest of the bulbs from your own garden… or the tulips from the flower stall on the corner. These messengers of spring remain festive … and affordable. That was different in the seventeenth century. Amsterdam was … Read more
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Today, January 20, is the feast day of Saint Sebastian of Rome, patron saint of the Amsterdam Archery Guild. The Amsterdam Museum owns the regalia of this guild, including the drinking horn. The richly decorated silver foot of this horn, which was passed from hand to hand during the shooting festivities, is ‘adorned’ with a … Read more
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Van Eeghen was at the helm of a successful trading house in nineteenth-century Amsterdam. That rings alarm bells today. Did he also make money from slavery? Slavery monument Oosterpark At the end of the last century, when I was studying history in Groningen, the subject of slavery played no role at all. Bizarre perhaps, but … Read more
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At the end of January, the Amsterdam Museum successfully bid for six drawings by Jan Luyken at auction house Sotheby’s in New York. The purchase was made possible thanks to a contribution from the Amsterdam Museum Society. The drawings are preliminary studies for illustrations in the book Bloody Scene, Or Martyrs Mirror Of The Baptismal … Read more