The Kloveniersdoelen ("musketeers' shooting range") was a complex of buildings in Amsterdam which served as headquarters and shooting range for the local schutterij (civic guard). The companies of kloveniers were armed with an early type of musket known as an arquebus, known in Dutch as a bus, haakbus or klover (from the French couleuvrine), hence the name kloveniers.
The Kloveniersdoelen was located at the corner of Nieuwe Doelenstraat and Kloveniersburgwal canal, both named after the former shooting range. The 19th-century Doelen Hotel now stands on the spot. Two kloveniers are depicted on the domed tower of the hotel, another reference to the history of this location.
Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch was commissioned for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen.
The Kloveniersdoelen was one of three doelens (shooting ranges) for the Amsterdam schutterij (civic guard). The other two shooting ranges were the Handboogdoelen and Voetboogdoelen, both located along the Singel. The Handboogdoelen civic guard was armed with longbows, while the Voetboogdoelen civic guard wielded crossbows and the Kloveniersdoelen civic guard used an early type of musket, the arquebus. The Kloveniersdoelen was the oldest of the three. [1]
Amsterdam's militia guilds were formed in the Middle Ages to defend the city against attack. Around 1580, at the behest of William of Orange, these Medieval guilds were incorporated into a new, much larger civic guard to defend the newly Protestant city against the Spanish during the Dutch revolt which ultimately led to a full-blown war of independence, the Eighty Years' War. Officers of this new civic guard were recruited from the well-to-do of Amsterdam. [2]
The original building for the kloveniers guild was constructed in 1382 and stood along what is now Oude Doelenstraat, east of Dam Square. In 1520 it was replaced with a new building on Nieuwe Doelenstraat, adjacent to a defensive tower in the city walls known as Swych Utrecht ("Be quiet, Utrecht"), as its primarily role had been to defend the city against attacks by the Bishopric of Utrecht. [3] [1]
In 1638 a lavish new addition to the Kloveniersdoelen was completed. The new building was very modern for its time — rectangularly shaped and in the Classicist style that was very fashionable at that time. On the first floor of this new wing was a banquet hall measuring 18 by 9 meters. The elegant hall so impressed visitors that some compared it to the Banqueting House in London. [4]
In the mid-17th century, the Eighty Years' War ended and the civic guard no longer served a military purpose. The civic guard continued to exist, but membership became an honorary position and the doelens assumed a primarily social function. The wealthiest and most powerful citizens of Dutch Golden Age Amsterdam came together in the doelens to eat, drink and smoke. The elegant building was also used for official receptions and dinners, and to provide lodgings to prominent visitors to Amsterdam. [5] Marie de' Medici and Czar Peter the Great viewed a fireworks display on the Amstel river from a window of the Kloveniersdoelen.
From 9 August to 15 September 1748, the great hall hosted public gatherings of the Doelisten , a local protest group of mostly merchants opposing the perceived nepotism and corruption of the well-to-do who dominated Amsterdam's city government. The crowds that gathered in the hall were so large, some feared that the floor would collapse under the weight.
In 1882/1883, the entire complex was demolished and replaced by the Doelen Hotel, which still stands on this location.
The walls of the Kloveniersdoelen were decorated with group portraits of the different companies of the civic guard. As early as 1529, Dirck Jacobsz painted a group portrait of a rot (company) of the kloveniers civic guard. It may have been the first group painting of the civic guard ever commissioned. The painting is now in the Rijksmuseum. [6]
The best-known of these group portraits for the Kloveniersdoelen is Rembrandt's The Night Watch . Completed in 1642, it was commissioned by the klovenier company under the command of Frans Banning Cocq. Other painters commissioned to do group portraits for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen were Nicolaes Eliaszoon Pickenoy, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Jacob Adriaensz. Backer and Joachim von Sandrart.
From about 1683, the group portraits were removed from the doelens. Most were hung in Amsterdam's city hall on Dam Square (now the Royal Palace of Amsterdam), others sold at auction. Many of the paintings were significantly trimmed to fit their new home. The full-size versions are known only through copies made of the original paintings, such as the watercolor copies contained in the Egerton Manuscript, which is now in the British Library. [7]
The Night Watch was trimmed on all four sides when it was moved to the town hall in 1715, presumably to fit the painting between two columns. This alteration resulted in the loss of two characters on the left side of the painting, as well as the top of the arch, the balustrade, and the edge of the step. This balustrade and step were key visual tools used by Rembrandt to give the painting a forward motion. A 17th-century copy of the painting by Gerrit Lundens at the National Gallery, London shows the original composition. [8]
The Kloveniersdoelen was one of three doelens (shooting ranges) for the Amsterdam civic guard, alongside the Handboogdoelen and Voetboogdoelen, both located along Singel canal. Of the three, only the Handboogdoelen survives.
The location of the Kloveniersdoelen is now occupied by the 19th-century Doelen Hotel. The Neo-Renaissance building contains some of the original walls and foundations of the Kloveniersdoelen. Two kloveniers are depicted on the domed tower of the hotel. They originally held muskets but these have gone missing.
Other Dutch towns, including Middelburg, Haarlem and Dordrecht, also had a Kloveniersdoelen.
Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch, is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best-known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings. Rembrandt's large painting is famed for transforming a group portrait of a civic guard company into a compelling drama energized by light and shadow (tenebrism). The title is a misnomer; the painting does not depict a nocturnal scene.
Thomas de Keyser was a Dutch portrait painter and a dealer in Belgium bluestone and stone mason. He was the most in-demand portrait painter in the Netherlands until the 1630s, when Rembrandt eclipsed him in popularity. Rembrandt was influenced by his work, and many of de Keyser's paintings were later falsely attributed to Rembrandt.
Bartholomeus van der Helst was a Dutch painter. Considered to be one of the leading portrait painters of the Dutch Golden Age, his elegant portraits gained him the patronage of Amsterdam's elite as well as the Stadtholder's circle. Besides portraits, van der Helst painted a few genre pictures as well as some biblical scenes and mythological subjects.
Ferdinand Bol was a Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, and single figures in exotic finery.
Frans Banninck Cocq, free lord of Purmerland and Ilpendam was a knight, burgemeester (mayor) and military person of Amsterdam in the mid-17th century, the Dutch Golden Age. He belonged to the wealthy and powerful Dutch patriciate, the regenten, and is best known as the central figure in Rembrandt's masterpiece The Night Watch.
Jacob Adriaensz Backer was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years, including portraits, religious subjects, and mythological paintings. In his style, he was influenced by Wybrand de Geest, Rubens and Abraham Bloemaert. He is also noted for his drawings of male and female nudes.
Dirck Jacobsz (1496–1567) was a Dutch Renaissance painter. His exact birthplace is unknown, but it was somewhere near Amsterdam.
Schutterij refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the weather did not allow, inside a church. They are mostly grouped according to their district and to the weapon that they used: bow, crossbow or gun. Together, its members are called a Schuttersgilde, which could be roughly translated as a "shooter's guild". It is now a title applied to ceremonial shooting clubs and to the country's Olympic rifle team.
Pieter Jacobsz Codde was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits.
Cornelis or Cornelius Ketel was a Dutch Mannerist painter, active in Elizabethan London from 1573 to 1581, and in Amsterdam till his death. Ketel, known essentially as a portrait-painter, was also a poet and orator, and from 1595 a sculptor as well.
Cornelis Anthonisz., Anthonisz. also spelled Anthonissen or Teunissen, was a Dutch painter, engraver, and mapmaker.
Kloveniersburgwal is an Amsterdam canal flowing south from Nieuwmarkt to the Amstel River on the edge of the medieval city, lying east of the dam in the centre of Amsterdam.
Willem van Ruytenburch, lord of Vlaardingen and Vlaardingen-Ambacht (1600–1652) was a member of the Dutch gentry and Amsterdam patriciate of the Dutch Golden Age. He became an alderman of Amsterdam and joined the Schutterij of Frans Banninck Cocq. Willem was featured, as a lieutenant, in Rembrandt's 1642 painting The Night Watch for which he is now probably most famous.
The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1630 refers to the schutterstuk painted by Hendrik Gerritsz Pot for the Cluveniers, St. Adrian, or St. Hadrian civic guard of Haarlem, and today is considered one of the main attractions of the Frans Hals Museum there.
The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch artist Frans Hals, painted from 1626 - 1627, during the Dutch Golden Age. Today, the piece is considered one of the main attractions of the Frans Hals Museum.
Gerrit Lundens, was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits and a single vanitas painting. He also made copies after prominent masters, including Rembrandt. He further operated an inn and was active as a wine merchant.
The Handboogdoelen is a building on the Singel canal in Amsterdam, near Koningsplein square. It dates back to the early 16th century and originally served as headquarters and shooting range of the local schutterij. Most of the current building at Singel 421 dates to the 18th century and is part of the main complex of the Amsterdam University Library. The Doelenzaal hall on the ground floor of the building is used for lectures, meetings, receptions and doctoral dissertations. The building has rijksmonument status.
The Voetboogdoelen was a 16th-century building on the Singel canal in Amsterdam, at the corner of Heiligeweg near Koningsplein square, which served as headquarters and shooting range of the local schutterij. Frans Hals painted a group portrait for the Voetboogdoelen, known as the Meagre Company.
Tivoli Doelen Amsterdam Hotel is a historic hotel in the Binnenstad of Amsterdam, the oldest hotel in the city. It is located on the Binnen-Amstel at the southern end of the Kloveniersburgwal. The entrance is at Nieuwe Doelenstraat 24.
Dirk de Graeff was a Dutch 17th-century regent who belonged to the States Party.