Artist: Nicolaes Jacobsz Van Der Heck
Date: 1638
Size: 31 x 72 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
Claes Jacobsz van der Heck specialized in views of the Abbey of Egmond-Binnen (as shown here), which are most often paired, as is the Rijksmuseum painting, with a view of the Castle of Egmond aan den Hoef (SK-A-990). In some cases these two views form a set with a third view, that of the village of Egmond aan Zee.5 In one instance, a painting of 1635 in the Catharijneconvent, Van der Heck showed both the abbey and the castle together in the same composition, although the buildings lay kilometres apart.6 Egmond Castle is shown in the distance on the right of the Rijksmuseum View of the Abbey of Egmond-Binnen, while a view of Alkmaar with the Sint Laurenskerk clearly recognizable, can be seen on the right of the View of the Castle of Egmond aan den Hoef. Egmond Abbey was founded around 950 by Dirk I, Count of Holland, as a convent, but soon became a monastery for Benedictine monks. The abbey is the oldest in the Netherlands, and was an important cultural centre in the middle ages, possessing a very large library. Egmond Castle was the seat of the counts of Egmond. Under orders of William the Silent both the abbey and castle were destroyed by the troops of Diederik Sonoy, governor of the northern quarter of Holland in 1573, in order to prevent invading Spanish troops from using them as encampments. Both structures were in ruins in Van der Heck’s time, so he obviously based his views of them on earlier images made before they were destroyed. A painting by Gilles de Saen (1580-1610) now in the townhall of Sottegem may have served as the prototype for Van der Heck’s view of Egmond Castle.7 Van der Heck’s views of the Abbey of Egmond-Binnen, the Castle of Egmond aan den Hoef and the village of Egmond aan Zee are of varying quality, which probably indicates the participation of his workshop. Van der Heck’s son, Maarten Heemskerck van der Heck, probably had a hand in their execution, continuing his father’s workshop after the latter’s death in 1652.8 Indeed, one pair showing the abbey and castle is dated 1655.9 Jonathan Bikker, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 116.
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