Agnes Block

Jan Weenix : Agnes Block and her family in the garden of their Vijverhof country estate , c. 1690.

Agnes Block as Flora Batava on a commemorative coin from Jan Boskam, 1700

Agnes Block , also Agneta Block (born October 29, 1629 in Emmerich , † April 20, 1704 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch Mennonite , art collector and patron and collector of tropical plants. She is considered the first European woman in whose greenhouses a pineapple plant was successfully cared for from sapling to fruit ripeness. She has also put together a collection of flower and insect drawings and paintings. She was in close contact with personalities such as Jan Commelin , who was one of the leading botanists of his time.

Life

Agnes Block was the daughter of a successful Dutch cloth merchant. In 1649 she married Hans de Wolff (1613-1670), an Amsterdam silk merchant. After he died in 1674, she married Sijbrand de Flines (1623-1697). In Amsterdam she lived on the Herengracht in close proximity to the Dutch poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel , who was married to Mayken de Wolff, an aunt of Agnes Block's first husband. Van den Vondel was a regular guest at Agnes Block's house on Fridays and is considered to be the man who influenced her significantly.

After the death of her first husband, Block bought a country estate on the Utrechtschen Vecht , where she began to assemble a large collection of curiosities. Her passion for collecting also extended to plants. In the 17th century, the Netherlands was considered the leading country in gardening culture and accordingly the first further developments of greenhouses in which exotic plants could be tended took place here. One of the first greenhouses in which, due to the light conditions and the achievable soil temperature, it was theoretically possible to cultivate the coveted and prestigious pineapple fruits, was built in 1682 in the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam . Three sides of the small house were glazed, the floor was heated from below by peat ovens and further pipes warmed the air of the greenhouse. As a wealthy collector of tropical plants, Block had something similar built on her country estate, and in 1685 the gardeners of Agnes Block grew a single pineapple fruit from a sapling for the first time on her Vijverhof estate. Block was so proud of this achievement that she had a silver medal struck to celebrate the event. The medal bore the inscription Fert Arsque Laborque Quod Natura Negat - skill and work produce what nature cannot .

In the Dutch Institute for Art History Block is listed as a paper cut artist and painter, but none of her works have survived. However, to supplement her collection of paintings and drawings, she commissioned a number of other artists. Just like her works, this collection has also been lost, but individual works have been included in the collections of later art patrons. The artists she commissioned include Alida Withoos , her brother Pieter Withoos , Johannes Bronkhorst , Herman Henstenburgh and Otto Marseus van Schrieck . Other artists who temporarily lived and worked at Vijverhof are Maria Sibylla Merian , her daughter Johanna Helena Herolds-Graff, Pieter Holsteyn II , Nicolaas Juweel (Rotterdam, 1639 - Rotterdam, 1704), Jan Moninckx , Maria Moninckx , Herman Saftleven , Rochus van Veen , Marino Benaglia Venetiano and Nicolaes de Vree .

literature

• Fran Beauman: The Pineapple: King of Fruits . Random House, London 2005, ISBN 0-7011-7699-7 .

Single receipts

1. ↑ Biography Agnes Block in 1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis
2. ↑ Alida Withoos and her work - Digital exhibitions of Bibliotheek Wageningen UR
3. ↑ Beauman: The Pineapple - King of Fruit. P. 59.
4. ↑ Beauman: The Pineapple - King of Fruit. P. 60.
5. ^ Agnes Block in the RKD
6. ↑ L. Missel, 'Agnes Blok en Vijverhof', in: Vrouwen in de botanie en art