227
of the soils have groundwater within 140 cm of the soil surface during the winter.”
6
In this land which comprises a veritable mosaic of dikes—“50,000 miles” worth—
of enormous areas of land reclaimed from the North Sea, and local “water boards”
dating to the Middle Ages to deal with constant flooding and resulting hydrological
projects throughout the country (the current Delta Works and Maeslantkering,
among many expensive others), there is a certain obsessive insecurity that can be
attributed to a uniquely Dutch geographical bifurcation. It is an aqueous flash point,
a cultural inflection affecting every generation that sees the interior as the familiar
dark and cozy retreat, whereas the outdoors mingles pleasure with the historical fact
of Holland having been once a landscape of predominant “polderland,” a place of
swamps that held in the cold, the damp, the dangerous.
7
An ecological paradox
across the Netherlands prevails at the nexus of every hamlet, every doorway leading
to the outside.
In the case of van Goyen, his son-in-law, Jan Steen, painted van Goyen’s indoor
scenes, while van Goyen expressly relied upon the exterior as an expression of his
claim to popularity. This separation gathers affirmative intensity in both Dutch manuscript illuminations and gardens of the seventeenth century. Gardens remain free
of inclement weather, but the surrounding seas tend to emphasize coming storms,
the ferocity of waves-in-uprising, of ships seized by hailstorm and hue-and-cry, and,
in turn, the psyche constantly in tune with the ever-looming inevitability of flood
waters and sleet, of calamity forever emergent.
8
It is the interior domain—whether
in the Netherlands or the Gobi Desert—where humanity’s comforts and stability
reside. Other species have their nests and burrows. Even wild boar in Africa know
how to keep themselves relatively well-hidden beneath ground, usually out of reach
of large felids. Others have their millions of years of well-honed camouflage. Only
humans must focus the vast majority of their time indoors, where the safe haven is
the most predominant motif and pastime, the matrix for cooking, reading, sleeping,
eating, procreating (Fig. 24.2).
Curiously, van Goyen gave a certain sense of a safe zone to those choppy waters
and pummeling skies. He managed to paint those exteriors most familiar to his
neighbors, with a density of weather, crowding together calm predictability, social
enjoyment, and a distinct structure to life, that re-engineered in mind that
6 See “Soil maps of The Netherlands,” by Alfred E. Hartemink and Marthijn P. W. Sonneveld,
Geoderma 204–205, 2013, 1–9, SciVerse ScienceDirect, Elsevier, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/
viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.296.4604&rep=rep1&type=pdf, Accessed April 25, 2019.
7 See “Lessons for U.S. From a Flood-Prone Land,” by Andrew Higgins, November 14, 2012, The
New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/europe/netherlands-sets-model-offlood-prevention.html, Accessed April 25, 2019.
8 See The Dutch Garden in the Seventeenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History
of Landscape Architecture, XII, Edited by John Dixon Hunt, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees For
Harvard University, Washington D.C., 1990; and The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting,
Introduction By James H. Marrow, Catalogue Essays By Henri L. M. Defoer, Anne S. Korteweg
and Wilhamina C. M. Wüstefeld, George Brailler, Inc., New York 1990.
24.1 Golden Memories
of the soils have groundwater within 140 cm of the soil surface during the winter.”
6
In this land which comprises a veritable mosaic of dikes—“50,000 miles” worth—
of enormous areas of land reclaimed from the North Sea, and local “water boards”
dating to the Middle Ages to deal with constant flooding and resulting hydrological
projects throughout the country (the current Delta Works and Maeslantkering,
among many expensive others), there is a certain obsessive insecurity that can be
attributed to a uniquely Dutch geographical bifurcation. It is an aqueous flash point,
a cultural inflection affecting every generation that sees the interior as the familiar
dark and cozy retreat, whereas the outdoors mingles pleasure with the historical fact
of Holland having been once a landscape of predominant “polderland,” a place of
swamps that held in the cold, the damp, the dangerous.
7
An ecological paradox
across the Netherlands prevails at the nexus of every hamlet, every doorway leading
to the outside.
In the case of van Goyen, his son-in-law, Jan Steen, painted van Goyen’s indoor
scenes, while van Goyen expressly relied upon the exterior as an expression of his
claim to popularity. This separation gathers affirmative intensity in both Dutch manuscript illuminations and gardens of the seventeenth century. Gardens remain free
of inclement weather, but the surrounding seas tend to emphasize coming storms,
the ferocity of waves-in-uprising, of ships seized by hailstorm and hue-and-cry, and,
in turn, the psyche constantly in tune with the ever-looming inevitability of flood
waters and sleet, of calamity forever emergent.
8
It is the interior domain—whether
in the Netherlands or the Gobi Desert—where humanity’s comforts and stability
reside. Other species have their nests and burrows. Even wild boar in Africa know
how to keep themselves relatively well-hidden beneath ground, usually out of reach
of large felids. Others have their millions of years of well-honed camouflage. Only
humans must focus the vast majority of their time indoors, where the safe haven is
the most predominant motif and pastime, the matrix for cooking, reading, sleeping,
eating, procreating (Fig. 24.2).
Curiously, van Goyen gave a certain sense of a safe zone to those choppy waters
and pummeling skies. He managed to paint those exteriors most familiar to his
neighbors, with a density of weather, crowding together calm predictability, social
enjoyment, and a distinct structure to life, that re-engineered in mind that
6 See “Soil maps of The Netherlands,” by Alfred E. Hartemink and Marthijn P. W. Sonneveld,
Geoderma 204–205, 2013, 1–9, SciVerse ScienceDirect, Elsevier, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/
viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.296.4604&rep=rep1&type=pdf, Accessed April 25, 2019.
7 See “Lessons for U.S. From a Flood-Prone Land,” by Andrew Higgins, November 14, 2012, The
New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/europe/netherlands-sets-model-offlood-prevention.html, Accessed April 25, 2019.
8 See The Dutch Garden in the Seventeenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History
of Landscape Architecture, XII, Edited by John Dixon Hunt, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees For
Harvard University, Washington D.C., 1990; and The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting,
Introduction By James H. Marrow, Catalogue Essays By Henri L. M. Defoer, Anne S. Korteweg
and Wilhamina C. M. Wüstefeld, George Brailler, Inc., New York 1990.
24.1 Golden Memories