CODART Canon

Oranjezaal

Jacob van Campen, Jacob Jordaens, Gerard van Honthorst, Caesar van Everdingen, and others, 1648 — 1652
Huis ten Bosch Palace, The Hague

In Huis ten Bosch Palace, the Dutch king’s residence in The Hague, you will find the Oranjezaal (Orange Hall), one of the most impressive monuments from the seventeenth century. Together, dozens of large representations form a unique ensemble of Dutch and Flemish painting from around 1650. The decoration of the Oranjezaal was commissioned by Amalia van Solms as a tribute to her husband, Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, who died in 1647. The scale of this project was unprecedented for the Republic. The largest and most important painting in the Oranjezaal, The Triumph of Frederik Hendrik, was completed by the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens on a huge canvas, measuring 7.31 by 7.56 meters. For a long time, this room did not attract much attention, but in the last decades there has been a revival of interest in wall decorations, history paintings and classicist painting. Caesar van Everdingen’s Four Muses and Pegasus, with its original composition and refined color scheme, is my personal favorite.

— Quentin Buvelot, Senior Curator, Mauritshuis, The Hague