{"id":294,"date":"2014-04-24T16:50:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T16:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=294"},"modified":"2016-08-23T20:45:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T20:45:12","slug":"wednesday-april-23-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, April 23, Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tired, cranky, and tense, thanks to\u00a0the inconsolable\u00a0infant next door. Breakfast and a hot shower improved my mood before I\u00a0Ubered over to the Rembrandt House<\/strong> for a\u00a0three-hour tour (I can\u2019t type that without hearing the theme from Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em>). I booked it with Context Travel, based on the one other tour I’ve done with them at the Vatican Museum.<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.contexttravel.com\/city\/amsterdam\/walking-tour-details\/rembrandts-amsterdam<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrived at the Rembrandthuis\u00a0<\/strong> and was delighted\u00a0to discover the tour consisted of me, an American Rembrandt scholar for my guide, and a trainee docent, a Dutch woman from Rembrandt’s hometown of Leiden. Booyah! Let the education begin.<\/p>\n

I was one enthralled client. Our timing was such that the man who does print demonstrations began the process to accommodate us. As he did each step, he explained both the how and the why of the process and how Rembrandt worked.\u00a0Show and tell at its best.\u00a0There were\u00a0examples of the way Rembrandt changed plates over time, scraping away some figures, adding other details, how you can track the order in which a particular image evolves by putting the prints side by side.<\/p>\n

\"print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He prepared to make a print on\u00a0rag paper, explaining that Rembrandt also used linen, Japanese mulberry paper, and vellum. The demo guy used a decidedly anachronistic spatula to scrape the ink over the plate, then wiped it with cheesecloth, and finally his own chalked palm. One of those odd facts that will stick in my brain forever is the authentic\u00a0tamp\u00a0(instead of the spatula) was made from the skin of a dog. Since dogs don’t sweat they have no pores, and their skins were the best for not absorbing the ink.<\/p>\n

\"2prints\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then he used the press to make a print. Magic! The print\u00a0on\u00a0the bottom is the one hot off the press.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, in Rembrandt’s studio, there was another demo in progress; how\u00a0Rembrandt made\u00a0his paints. A woman ground organic pigments into linseed oil. I petted the brushes. Heaven.<\/p>\n

\"paint\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My guide seemed to know pretty much everything there was to know about Rembrandt, his workshop, and clients. The Dutch trainee talked about the culture of the times.\u00a0Big fun for me. Huge.<\/p>\n

We parted in Dam Square<\/strong> after a brief walk around Rembrandt’s neighborhood. There was a funfair set up in the square, with carnival rides, a haunted house, ring toss\u00a0type booths, lots of shrieking and screaming.<\/p>\n

Welcome to hell.<\/p>\n

I skedaddled around the side of the church to De Drie Graafjes caf\u00e9<\/strong> and ate a broodje<\/span>\u00a0on the second floor, watching the street scene below. Wandered afterward to the Nine Streets, known for boutiques of\u00a0local designers\/creators. Walked around until the no sleep\u00a0thing cut my legs out from under me, and I headed back to my room. On the way, I passed a number of shops that reminded me just how seriously the Dutch take their cheese.<\/p>\n

\"cheese\"<\/a> \"cheese2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Very, very seriously.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, either back to the Rjiks<\/strong> or over to the outpost of the Hermitage museum<\/strong> for the Silk Road<\/em> exhibit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tired, cranky, and tense, thanks to\u00a0the inconsolable\u00a0infant next door. Breakfast and a hot shower improved my mood before I\u00a0Ubered over to the Rembrandt House for a\u00a0three-hour tour (I can\u2019t type that without hearing the theme from Gilligan\u2019s Island). I booked it with Context Travel, based on the one other tour I’ve done with them at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,137],"tags":[186,226,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-amsterdam","8":"category-short-trips","9":"tag-museum","10":"tag-rembrandt","11":"tag-restaurant","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/paint1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-4K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}