Van Loon Museum
The Van Loon Museum is a museum founded in 1960 in Amsterdam , the Netherlands .
Location and description
The building is located at Keizersgracht 672 in Amsterdam and was built together with the neighboring house No. 674 between 1671 and 1672 for the Flemish merchant Jeremias van Raey . The architect of the twin houses was Adriaan Dortsman . The first tenant of no. 672 was the painter Ferdinand Bol .
On the gable facing the street are four statues of Greco-Roman gods: 1. the goddess of war Pallas Athena / Minerva , 2. the god of war Ares / Mars , 3. the god of fire Hephaistos / Vulcanus and 4. the goddess of the earth Demeter / Ceres . The interior furnishings include a picture gallery with portraits of the Van Loon family from the 17th to the 20th century, printed wallpaper that used to be in the family's estate in Drakenstein Castle , antique furniture and cupboards with porcelain, for example Example from Limoges with the family coat of arms. Part of the building is accessible to visitors.
The property has a coach house at its rear on Kerkstraat, which was used by the family until it was sold in 2009. Today it is used as a registry office. The gable on the garden side of the houses was renewed in 1775 and shows a bust of the god Apollo and zinc reliefs with Flora / Chloris and Silenus with Dionysus / Bacchus on his arm. The garden of the houses was laid out in 1973 and was based on a design by Jacobus Bosch from 1679. Garden and summer house from the period after 1752 are as Rijksmonument under monument protection .
owner
The building complex was planned from the beginning so that the house number Keizersgracht 674 was the owner's house and number 672 could be rented out. In the 18th century, the twin houses were rebuilt by new owners and then both houses were used by the owners. The Van Loon family had owned the houses since 1884, and in 1920 the coach house was converted into a garage. Since the establishment of a foundation in 1960, it has taken care of the maintenance of the garden and buildings, of the family's collections and their preservation, and of making them accessible to the public. The last male Van Loon died in 2006; today his daughter is chairwoman of the foundation.
museum
The museum houses furniture from the 17th century as well as antique sculptures and paintings (mostly portraits).
See also
literature
- Tonko Grever, Mieke Hund (eds.): Museum Van Loon: een extera fraay huis . Waanders, Zwolle 2010, ISBN 978-90-400-7720-3 .
Web links
- Homepage of the Van Loon Museum (Dutch, English)
- Van Loon Museum . In: amsterdam.info
Footnotes
Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '48.2 " N , 4 ° 53' 36" E