True history of Ferdinand Bol paintings revealed
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 09:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
For the past 100 years, four gigantic paintings have hung in the Peace Palace in The Hague. Together with a fifth painting in the State Room in Den Bosch they form an impressive series. This series, painted by Ferdinand Bol in the 17th century, has always been shrouded in mysteries. Why was the series commissioned and who commissioned it? How did the paintings originally hang? And why is there no apparent connection between the subjects of the paintings? With the help of an innovative interdisciplinary approach, NWO researcher Margriet van Eikema Hommes discovered that the paintings are the result of the ambitions of an incredibly rich widow from Utrecht who decorated her spectacular reception room with them.