The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-09-24


of Holland sailed all the seven seas ana orought
home wealth and tales of adventure. Then lts
sailors hammered at the arctic icepack and
pushed their trade among tropical spice isiands'
Then it was that De Ruyter sailed up the Thames
with broom at his masthead then too, that
Rembrandt painted and Vondel rhymed.. Ihat
also for Holland was a great building age when
prosperity caused cities to grow, canals to be
dug ports to be built, and the muhipex activity
of Dutchmen to manifest itself In all kinds OF
makings and shapings upon the surface or ther
amphibious land-half earth, half water. Thus
It is the Holland Of Rembrandt's day and there
about that remains most interesting TO the trav-
eler. and 1t is the buildings then erected that are
most worthy of study and presentation within
her towns
Amsterdam, when Rembrandt went to settle
there about 1884, passing architecturally
through a period of transition. The small core
of the city, where everything was on small
scale. still retained many remnants Of the me-
dieval age The canals in it were narrow, the
accommodation for ships exiguous grow
ing population and expanding trade were finding
themselves horribly cramped
Amsterdam grew like an onion, by layers sur
rounding layers about a center. From time to
time new rings Of canals were added. with radia
connections, and then more rings outside them
OF course fortified walls erected round the
whole at different dates but they never lasted for
the city expanded. The moat Of each new circuit
became a canal within the next. Those who were
responsible for the important changes made at
the beginning Of the seventeenth century had the
good not to destroy every memorial OF
medieval days. In particular they spared some
OF the old fortincation towers, applying them to
new purpose and refitting them accordingly Thus
the tower called Montelbaanstoren, which still
stands by the old Schans Of the largest
basins of the earlier canal system, was a part OF
the medieval Notifications. They turned II into
a picturesque bell tower by the addition of a
superstructure set up in the year 1905. Though
this was done before Rembrandt's day, he omitted
the steeple in an admirable drawing he made Of
it, thus giving one among countless instances
that might be cited of his attachment rather to
the past than to the coming taste of the people
of his day. The only other high tower at Am
sterdam drawn by him was the Westertoren or
tower of the Westerkerk on the Prinsengracht
which unfortunately, cannot produce In this
place. That tower was favorite with the folk
of Amsterdam, and have more than once found
1t referred to, In narratives OF Dutch exploration
as a measure of height, as, for instance, when
glacier cliff is said to have stood out Of the sea
about as high the Westertoren. II is storied
tower, composed OF four retreatng rectangular
stages, each with columns at the angles. not
unlike of Wrens towers In the city OF Lon
don
The Westertoren however carries down
rather too late, when Palladian ideas af-
fecting Dutch architects. This feature OF
the change of taste which made the art of Rem
brandt old fashioned and terminated his pros
perty The Mint tower of 1640, and the others
shown in our illustrations. examples Of Am
sterdam steeple architecture of Rembrandts own
generation If they must be called fantastic they
are certainly picturesque, and admirably suited
to enliven canal vista or to poke up out Of
foreground OF crow-stepped gables.
These are the typicay Dutch towers, these
buildings of the great days of Dutch romance
Earlier towers we can find in Holland but they
are Gothic and re-echo the style elaborated in
France France also set the key of architectural
style In the eighteenth century In the
teenth century Holland stood on her own feet
and other folk initiated the work OF her artists
The Dutch style affected England; It was imi
tated in the remarkable buildings erected i'm Dem
mark for Christian ". 1t penetrated to the ends
of the earth. II went with Dutch adventures to
New York, to Ceylon, to the Cape OF Good Hope.
where examples of II may still be hunted out by
patient searching.
Our illustrations include a few of the earlier
towers of Holland. about which a word or two
must be said. Here, for instance, are the Cathe-
dral and one of the medieval gates of Maastricht
neither of them in any sense Enthusiastically
Dutch. for the Holland that the world admires
was created in the fire of the Reformation wars.
The cathedral church OF ST. Servatius at Mas.
trfcht is OF early Christian foundation. and IL is
even claimed that portions Of the existing walls
date back to the sixth century. The building as
we see it, however. is great romanesque
church of Rhenish style, with restored eleventh
century towers at the angles of it's apse and a
later Gothic bell tower adjacent to a side aisle
Utrecht and Delft have bell towers of like kind
the upper story being many-sided and many
gabed. Another such tower is in Paradise itself
IL we are to believe Hubert Van Eyck's picture OF
that delectable land. the famous altarniaca eti
at Ghent. unless the Germans have carried II of
Medieval Maastricht was not a large place
The Cathedral was in the center of t; not NOR,
than five hundred yards away are the remains o.
the city walls Of 1890. The exigencies OF wa,
make the military architecture OF a given dat,
everywhere much the same. Thus the tower
fanked south gate Of Maastricht is not diferen
I'm design from many another that can be fount
n the old cities OF Europe. But though it HAD