Schuttersmaaltijd ter viering van de Vrede van Munster Rijksmuseum SK-C-2

''Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard in Celebration of the Peace of Münster'' (1648) is a group portrait

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

painter

Bartholomeus van der Helst Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613 – buried 16 December 1670) was a Dutch painter. Considered to be one of the leading portrait painters of the Dutch Golden Age, his elegant portraits gained him the patronage of Amsterdam's elite as well as t ...

. It is an example of

Dutch Golden Age painting Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republ ...

and is considered one of the highlights of the

Amsterdam Museum The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the building the Amst ...

, though it is generally on show in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

. The painting is one of the largest civic guard group portraits for which most of the sitters are known and most of the portrayed objects have survived. The painting is about retiring from active duty, because the

Peace of Münster The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Lords States General of the Seven United Netherlands and the Spanish Crown, the terms of which were agreed on 30 January 1648. The treaty, parallelly negotiated to but not part of the Peace of We ...

had finally been signed after years of negotiations. The main figures are seen with the attributes of the civic guard guilds. On the right

Cornelis Jan Witsen Cornelis Jansz. Witsen (bapt. 8 September 1605, Amsterdam – 12 March 1669, Amsterdam) was a counsellor and mayor of the city of Amsterdam. He was the father of Nicolaes Witsen and the son of Jan Witsz(en) and Grietje Claes. Biography The W ...

heads up the table, holding the silver drinking horn of the Voetboogdoelen, Amsterdam. File:Bekerschroef, detail van Schuttersschilderij uit 1648 door Barth. vd Helst.JPG, The " bekerschroef" or wineglass holder, is one of five still in the collection of the city of Amsterdam File:SA 7330-detail of the drinking horn-De vier overlieden van het Sint Jorisgilde (cropped).jpg, The silver drinking horn was painted by Van der Helst again in 1656 when he painted the directors of the Voetboogdoelen The art historian J.J. de Gelder mentioned the painting is dated 1648 but was probably finished at least a year later, similar to the way other group portraits by Van der Helst bear the date of the commission and not of completion.J.J. de Gelder, dissertation on Bartholomeus van der Helst with a monograph of his work, 1921, cat. nr. 836
/ref> The drum explains the occasion by way of the poem attached to it by

Jan Vos Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numbe ...

. The names mentioned in the poem are the handshakers, but in 1680 a name board was added that included 24 names: File:Naambord behorende bij de schuttersmaaltijd met Cornelis Witsen in handdruk met Van Waveren.jpg The art historian Judith van Gent remarked that the first name on this list was Hendrik Caliber who was buried a month after the festivities took place, and agrees with De Gelder that the painting took quite a while to create and assumes the commission probably was granted well before the summer of 1648. In her catalog entry for this painting she lists short biographies of the traceable names.

References

* Judith van Gent, ''Bartholomeus van der Helst (ca. 1613–1670). Een studie naar zijn leven en werk, Waanders, Zwolle, 2011, nr. 43 1648 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Militia group portraits Paintings by Bartholomeus van der Helst Amsterdam Museum Food and drink paintings Musical instruments in art {{17C-painting-stub