Skating on Thin Ice ... Or, Other Random Happenings

Yesterday the wind and snow finally stopped long enough for Hope and I to venture out of our warm loft apartment for a day of fun in Amsterdam.

Happily the city did not disappoint.

Prinsengracht, Amsterdam

There were the usual crowds hording the streets and cafes, but added to this was the spectacle of people on the frozen canals.

It's likely that those who were simply standing around with just their shoes on were tourists itching for the experience and a good selfie.

But others, gliding across the ice on skates with the poise of practice, were clearly locals.

Of course there really were more people watching from the banks and brugs than were out on the frozen canals. This may have been prudent since at two different spots the Politie came and warned people to get off the ice.

Indeed water could be seen percolating up from under the ice at the edges of the canal, and on many canals it was simply floating loosely around passing tour boats. We beat a hasty retreat from the canal scene.

At the Rijksmuseum we spent the entire afternoon on Floor 2 which features Dutch art from 1600 - 1700.

The cold -- it was, after all, only about 1℃ outside -- pushed many indoors, hence the museum was quite busy.

people viewing
Hendrick Avercamp
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters
c. 1608
Oil on panel, 87.5 x 132 cm
Rijksmuseum

The Avercamp mentioned in a previous blog post was crowded around by viewers. In these moments it can appear easier to appreciate art from the armchair than in the exhibit house.

A smaller room on Floor 2 that was much less busy contained a series of etchings and engravings on the theme of winter, including this one by Pieter Jansz. Quast. 

Pieter Jansz. Quast
Skating Peasant, 1634 - 1638
etching on paper
213 x 165 mm
on loan from Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

Quast, an engraver from Amsterdam, often produced works featuring beggars and peasants. Here the viewer is presented with the image of a tired, aging man making his way across the ice. The man's hunched back is enhanced by the perspective from below, as though the viewer is a child looking up at the older man. There is a morality here, suggesting to the viewer the perils of aging and poverty. Don't get old. Don't be poor.

The basket, slung over the man's back with a pole, provides diagonal balance to the composition. In the background two other skaters add a playful contrast to the beggar's work weary posture. Birds hover in care free flight above them, thus producing additional juxtaposition to the man's groundedness on the ice. 

Quast has replicated shadows under the man's curl-toed skates, thereby doubling the depth of his relation to the frozen lake. 

Unlike our retreat from the canals in Amsterdam, this beggar will never extricate himself from these humbling conditions.