Page 11 - Women Collectors and the Rise of the Porcelain Cabinet (Collecting history in Europe)

tiled ‘dairy’ or grand kitchen. The small palace was wooden panels with integrated paintings. By looking
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complemented by a mirror cabinet, a marble cabinet, towards French tastes, the members of the House of
a delftware cabinet (which may also have been a Orange demonstrated that they were acquainted with,
grand kitchen or a room that was classed as a kitchen) and able to apply, leading international fashion trends.
and a bathing cabinet. Lacquer wall panels are also Amalia van Solms, however, implemented ideas of
documented in another, unnamed room, probably the her own: the fi tting out of entire rooms using Asian
mirror cabinet. From this time on the triad of lacquer- lacquer, porcelain wares and Indian mother-of-pearl
porcelain-and-mirror cabinet, grand kitchen and objects seems to have been her invention. Amalia’s
bathroom was a canonical feature of pleasure palace direct access to these highly desirable objects, and
architecture commissioned by the House of Orange, the resulting accumulation of them, undoubtedly
often being supplemented by a summer dining hall or reinforced the logical idea of matching the room
a ‘grotto’. décor to the items in the collection, especially as
French interior design favoured the coordination of
Why was it the members of the House of Orange in furnishings, textiles and wall coverings. One aspect
particular who elevated the collecting of porcelain that should not be underestimated, however, is the
to a distinguishing form of courtly display? The prestige value of Asian products as specifi cally Dutch
answer lies in their exceptional political position in trade goods: they were something that the House of
Europe. Frederick Henry of Orange held a unique Orange was able to present to European countries
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position, incomparable to that of other European as distinctively their own. This phenomenon was
princes. As head of the only remaining aristocratic also refl ected in the princely couple’s art collection:
dynasty in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces the majority of works, distributed among the various
in the Northern Netherlands, he played a mainly palaces and mostly hung in dedicated picture galleries,
representational role in his capacity as Stadholder of were paintings by contemporary artists from both
the States General. Since the European governments the Northern and Southern Netherlands; few were
acted solely at the level of princes, the Dutch cities of Italian, German or French provenance. Works
and provinces needed a chief negotiator who would by Dutch artists from before 1600 were also few
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be recognised by foreign rulers as one of their and far between. A recently advanced hypothesis
own. The House of Orange, which had only limited attributes this policy to a developing sense of ‘national
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political authority, therefore sought all the more identity’, an idea that is not implausible. Pride in
to demonstrate its parity with leading courts, such merchandise such as paintings and porcelain – luxury
as those of Paris, London, Heidelberg and Prague, goods, and as such status symbols valued by European
through displays of wealth, by securing political princely houses – demanded that these objects be
alliances through marriage and above all by building presented in a befi tting manner. At the same time,
palaces and collecting works of art. The interior desires were aroused: by fostering the aspiration to
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decoration of their palaces, a touchstone of opulence possess Asian objects on a grand scale and to purchase
and modernity, had been developed to a large extent by them via Holland, the House of Orange was able to
Frederick Henry’s wife, Amalia van Solms, since in the set standards, thus compensating for its lack of royal
Early Modern period this task was regarded as part of status.
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a woman’s responsibilities. The Princess looked to the
model of the latest French fashions, and introduced Following the introduction of the chinoiserie
the Netherlands to numerous decorative and technical cabinet, the female members of the House of Orange
innovations that had only recently been developed contributed in a similarly successful way to the export
in France. As discussed earlier, all the palaces of the of ‘Delffs Porcelijn’ produced in the Netherlands. Grand
House of Orange, for example, had a French-style kitchens and bathrooms decorated in the ‘Dutch’
sequence of rooms in the apartment. The decoration manner with faience tiles became as indispensable in
of the rooms followed the new principle of harmony palaces as porcelain cabinets. The reception of design
of colour and material. In 1632, for instance, Amalia concepts initiated by the House of Orange led not only
caused a sensation by not using Turkish carpets as to the adoption of the idea of creating certain types
table or wall decorations, as was customary, but of rooms, but also to adoption of the constitutive
laying them on the fl oors, even in highly prestigious elements used to fi t out each respective type of room.
rooms. From France she adopted the balustrade in For example, a particular form of étagère for the
front of the bed, parquet fl ooring, papier-mâché wall display of porcelain vessels spread throughout Europe
ornaments, as well as lambris à la française, painted (Fig. 7). Similarly, the newly developed delftware
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