Hello my friends,
You may remember this picture I showed you in June 2021. These are delft tiles depicting Prince Maurits and Prince Frederick of Orange. Both sons of William the silent. These tiles belong to the collection of the Rijksmuseum but are not on display at the moment. These high tableaux were used to decorate the back wall of a large and ornate fireplace.
Like in the painting in the picture above. A few rows of manganese or black tiles, or an iron plate would sit in between the two tableaux. The heat and soot would fan upwards along this central part thus keeping the expensive tableaux clean(er) and out of harms way.
My original plan was to use these two tableaux to decorate the fireplace in the stewards room. Because of the available height I had to reduce the 13 tile high tableaux to 11 tiles. I was not happy with this compromise. And apart from the reduced height these two tableaux simply were to grand for the office of the steward.
I could indeed! This fireplace would fit perfectly into my plans for the monumental fireplace for the large drawing room of Huis ter Swinnendael. You can see the plans in the picture above. My friend then graciously gave me entire kit to use and alter as I pleased. Humbled by such a large gift I want to thank him here again. I know that you read my posts, ;-) Once more, thank you very much for this huge gift! I will give this fireplace a good home.
What I will not use here are the tile sheets. They will be used in the fireplace for the stewards office to replace the original plan for the two princes.
And speaking of them, I had to wipe out the carbon copies of the two Princes you can see in the top picture in this post. I removed all the tiles and replaced them on the big tile. Fixing them with buddies. And since I no longer had to deal with the hight restriction for these tableaux I added the missing 2 rows of tiles to them. I added one extra row of tiles. The single bottom row with the names of these men will become a double row. This allows me to paint a more elaborate decoration around their names.
Hopefully I can show you these tableaux with blue ink and perhaps even with some colour on them soon. Following the receding of the corona outbreak over here Cocky Wildschut has decided to host a small workshop with only a few people to see how that goes. And I am one of the lucky ones. So in two weeks time I'll be working on these two gentlemen. Let's see how far I will get with them that day.
Take care,
Huibrecht
La chimenea es impresionante, pero aún es más lo que piensas hacer con los azulejos. Estoy desando verlo.
ReplyDeleteGracias Isabel. Sin duda mostraré el progreso en los azulejos.
DeleteHuibrecht
Okay, if your friend is reading this I would like to tell him thanks for giving this fireplace set into the right hands. ;O) What a generous gift... and what a lovely coincidence that it helps you to go on in the way you imagined. And even better that you will be able to attend the workshop with Cocky Wildshut soon; I can't wait to see the results. Btw I had to smile about your sketch of the two princes... and noooooo, not because of the drawing's quality, this is awesome, I'm always thrilled how talented you are with this stuff. No, what I mean is that the fact that you're painting a tile shield came in handy as using a grid is the method most people learn how to copy a picture. ;O)
ReplyDeleteHugs
Birgit (who has a problem now as the song "Two princes" by the Spin Doctors came to my mind while reading your post *grin*)
Yes it is a truly generouw gift!
DeleteAnd you are right, the grid of the tiles do come in very handy indeed. :-)
Huibrecht
Hi Huibrecht! I just loved hearing how this serendipity came to be! Not only solving the large drawing room's fireplace question, but solving the Stewart's fireplace quandary, as well! Now the princes will be fully displayed, and have their names with them to educate the viewers! What a lovely gift from your friend!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited that you get to participate in the class! I know you will make the most of the opportunity! And I am excited to see your process for creating these wonderful mural tiles! This will be fascinating! Best of luck, and have fun!
Hi Jodi! It was serendipitous indeed! I am really happy how this is turning out. But decorating the tiles is not a done thing. It will take quite some time and one workshop will probably not be enough to finish the paintwork on the. But a start is a start and the process is good fun. I hope to show some progress after the 19th.
DeleteHuibrecht
Oh, what a wonderful and generous friend to give you that grand fireplace!!! That is a rare treat indeed! The plan for the tiles sounds perfect and I am so glad you will be able to have a workshop so soon! This is all falling into place in a hurry! :) I agree that the two princes would be much too grand for a stewards office. We forget nowadays, how much one's "class" mattered in previous eras. I look forward to seeing those tiles!!! :):)
ReplyDeleteHi Betsy, you are absolutely right. Sometimes this project goes by a snail's pace, the next day it flies. :-)
DeleteAnd you are correct that we easily forget how sparse life was for the rest of society. Even in films set in historic times there is often too much furniture and too much colour in clothing. too much food lying around et cetera.
The steward hovers between the family living upstairs and the servants and villagers/peasantry. So his office may be grand in the eyes of the tennant farmers and such, but modest in the eyes of his employer. He must not, in any case, forget his position.
Huibrecht