Feel of Holland and Amsterdam and images quickly fill the mind – river cruises along atmospheric waterways and canals, lines of spinning windmills, bulb fields stretching into the distance, swathes of daffodils and tulips swaying in the breeze, diamonds the two cut and uncut by the handful, and excellent Dutch painters, of course, such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. What nation or city can match all of that wonderful imagery?
And there is no greater way to commence to value what Amsterdam has to offer than by a visit to Museumplein, a square in the heart of the city which is home to no less than four museums. The museums are the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Diamond Museum. Says it all, truly!
The Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum, dedicated to arts, crafts, and history, houses a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age – a period throughout the 17th century exactly where Dutch art, science and trade flourished. The greatest painters of the Golden Age not only incorporate Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn, but also the landscape painter Jacob van Ruysdael, the portrait painter Frans Hals, and Jan Steen, famed for his depictions of chaotic scenes of everyday life. The museum houses the performs of all of these Dutch masters and is a ‘must see’ for any visitor.
The Van Gogh Museum, not surprisingly, houses the greatest collection of the works of Vincent van Gogh, which includes some of his most renowned paintings – The Potato Eaters, Bedroom in Arles, The Yellow Property, and Nevertheless Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers. The collection also includes nine self-portraits, as effectively as some of his earliest paintings dating back to 1882.
For anybody interested in modern-day and modern art, the Stedelijk Museum, housing a collection of around 90,000 objects, is definitely not to be missed. The museum has been acquiring exhibits for far more than 125 years and now homes collections representing every important motion in art and layout. As nicely as paintings, from the likes of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, the collections incorporate exhibits from the realms of photography, graphic and industrial design and style, moving image and sound, posters, prints and drawings, and sculpture.
Diamonds are forever, according to famed song, and there is no doubting a visit to the Diamond Museum will also reside in the memory forever! Almost everything you ever wished to know about diamonds, but have been afraid to inquire, is right here and waiting to be found.
The museum requires the visitor on an extraordinary journey that started around three billion years ago and some 120 miles below the earth, ending with the diamond on the ring on your finger, or on some other piece of jewellery. You will find out what’s unique about the carbon atom that makes up a diamond compared to the carbon atoms generating up a piece of coal. Then you’ll learn about the techniques and meet the experts who transform a rough, uncut diamond into the finished article, an extraordinary and important jewel.
You’ll also discover how for 400 many years, Amsterdam became synonymous with the diamond trade, earning itself the name ‘City of Diamonds’. And if you didn’t know how to differentiate in between fake diamonds and the genuine thing, you definitely will right after a visit to this wonderful museum. Do not miss it.
from your own website.
