Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

In many ways, Constantijn Sr. was pivotal in this “program.” 163 He believed to be
a secretary of the same rank as those of the most influential Kings and princes in Europe 164
and did everything to make this ambition come true. Huygens took care of the contacts and
assignments for (dynastic) paintings of the Orange family, commanding paintings from
Pieter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Gerrit van Honthorst, Jan Lievens and many others. 165
Princess Amalia, while ordering the new palace, Huis ten Bosch, to be built, leaned heavily
on the judgment and knowledge of Constantijn Sr. when it came to the dynastic
representation that was to fill the central hall of the palace: the Oranjezaal (the Orange
Hall. 166 Like Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574) for the Medici family, Huygens devised a
commanded a series of paintings that traced back the ancestry of the Oranges directly to
the ultimate source of authority: God. 167 Furthermore, he was put in command of the
construction of a multitude of grand palaces and residences that the Prince of Orange built
in these years, working in close cooperation with the most important architects of the
Northern Netherlands of the day (Jacob van Campen, Pieter Post). 168 Finally, Huygens
generally was the main channel via which poets attributed their wedding poems, panegyric
verses and obituaries to the Prince and Princess of Orange – often taking time to read and
comment on them. Huygens also was central in the negotiation process between the
Houses of Orange and Stuart concerning the dynastically tactical marriage of Willem II
and Mary Stuart. 169
163
MÖRKE, O. (1997) The Orange Court as a Centre of Political and Social Life during the Republic
IN KEBLUSEK, M., ZIJLMANS, J. & MUSEUM, H. H. (Eds.) Princely display: the court of Frederik
Hendrik of Orange and Amalia van Solms. The Hague; Zwolle, Historical Museum; Waanders., p63. “[T]he
Oranges had entrusted Huygens with tasks that commanded an almost total identification with the
family and its interests.”
164
HUYGENS, C. & JORISSEN, T. (1873) Mémoires de Constantin Huygens : publiés pour la premiére fois,
d'apres̀ les minutes de l'auteur, preécédes d'une introduction, La Haye, Nijhoff., p22-25
165
HUYGENS, C. (1911) BW., Vol. 21, xiii. SLIVE, S. & ROSENBERG, J. (1995) Dutch painting
1600-1800, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press., p26-7
166
SLIVE, S. & ROSENBERG, J. (1995) Dutch painting 1600-1800, New Haven, Conn., Yale University
Press., p26-7
167
Cf. POWIS, J. (1984) Aristocracy, Oxford, UK ; New York, NY, USA, B. Blackwell., p49-50
168
ALPERS, S. (1983) The art of describing : Dutch art in the seventeenth century, Chicago, University of
Chicago Press., p4; SLIVE, S. & ROSENBERG, J. (1995) Dutch painting 1600-1800, New Haven,
Conn., Yale University Press., p26-7.
169
MÖRKE, O. (1991) Sovereignty and Authority. The Role of the Court in the Netherlands in the
First Half of the Seventeenth century. IN ASCH, R. G. & BIRKE, A. M. (Eds.) Princes, patronage, and
the nobility : the court at the beginning of the Modern Age, c.1450-1650. London, Oxford [England] ; New York,
German Historical Institute London, Oxford University Press., p463. On dynastically tactical
marriages: POWIS, J. (1984) Aristocracy, Oxford, UK ; New York, NY, USA, B. Blackwell., p31-4
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