Golden Age exhibit opens at Amsterdam Hermitage

More than 30 gigantic gunmen pieces and other group portraits from the 17th century can from Saturday at the Hermitage in Amsterdam in the exhibition Dutch of the Golden Age. The pieces are from the Amsterdam Museum and the Rijksmuseum and were largely in the depot because there was no room to display them. Until it appeared that the Hermitage had a wing that would work. The giant portraits had to be lowered in through the roof of the Hermitage with a crane. "Now we can show the pieces as it should be." said Paul Spies, director of the Amsterdam Museum, on Thursday. In the large downstairs room of the wing visitors can now view the portraits of influential citizens, administrators, trustees, governesses and gunmen, all immortalized together. "Nowhere else in the world are people portrayed in this way", said Martine Gosselink, head of history at the Rijksmuseum. The huge canvases hang in two rows, one above the other, and were made by artists such as Govert Flinck, Nicolaes Pickenoy and Jacob Backer. The group portraits are complemented by some 60 paintings and other works to tell the success story of the Golden Age. The downsides, such as slavery, are also discussed. The exhibition will be open until the end of 2016. The aim is to extend it afterwards.