Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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the latter Frederik van Nassau-Zuilestein and Prince Willem II’s son and successor, Willem III during the Stadholderless period. 194 ii. “Survivance” through judgment, style & standing The curriculum bespeaks certain social and professional ambitions that were complemented by Constantijn Sr.’s way of writing about it. Making music, to begin with, for Constantijn Sr. was not just a matter of playing an instrument. Singing “to the accompaniment of the viola” had to be performed “reading at sight and in fine style,” as prescribed by Baldassare Castiglione for his perfect Courtier. 195 The same could be said about doing sports – the right composure and style while pursuing sportive activity was just as important for Constantijn Sr. as was the sport itself. Christiaan Sr., according to his son Constantijn Sr., had “observed the manners ‘deemed proper for young people of rank’ [at the Court of Orange] and had apparently decided ‘to put this behaviour into practice at home with his children.’” 196 While swimming, ice-skating, horse riding, dancing and fencing, it was essential that the young Huygens kept an upright posture – “one of the most important requirements [for] well- mannered people.” 197 Constantijn Sr. even decided that his oldest son, Constantijn Jr., while still a young boy, had to have surgery due to his slightly leaning head. As upright posture was 194 POELHEKKE, J. J. (1973) Ludiek met Constantijn Huygens : voordracht gehouden te Nijmegen op 15 Februari 1973, Amsterdam, University Press., p146; 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 195 CASTIGLIONE, B. & JAVITCH, D. (2002a) The book of the courtier : the Singleton translation : an authoritative text, criticism, New York, W.W. Norton., quotes from p55, 76. Huygens indicates in his HUYGENS, C. & HEESAKKERS, C. L. (1987) Mijn jeugd, Amsterdam, Querido., p30, that when it came to playing the lute, he had “mastered his teacher even before the two years altogether had passed, during which he had lessons. In the first place, one could hardly show me a score that I couldn’t play immediately. Secondly (something that occurs less often but for that reason deserves all the more appreciation) I didn’t normally play pieces that I had learned to dislike through practice, but with success I let my own ability and improvisation skills do the work. Thus I performed music that no one had ever heard and that whirled up from myself without any effort.” My translation. 196 ROODENBURG, H. (1997) How to Sit, Stand, and Walk. Toward a Historical Anthropology of Dutch Paintings and Prints. IN FRANITS, W. E. (Ed.) Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art : realism reconsidered. Cambridge [England] ; New York, Cambridge University Press., p177-8 with quotes from: HUYGENS, C. & HEESAKKERS, C. L. (1987) Mijn jeugd, Amsterdam, Querido., p24-32. “[Gesture] has always been an important ingredient in social differentiation. (...) Aspiring groups have long used distinctive modes of bodily comportment as a means of setting themselves apart from their inferiors." THOMAS, K. (1991) Introduction. IN BREMMER, J. N. & ROODENBURG, H. (Eds.) A Cultural history of gesture : from antiquity to the present day. Cambridge, UK, Polity Press., p7. 197 ROODENBURG, H. (1997) How to Sit, Stand, and Walk. Toward a Historical Anthropology of Dutch Paintings and Prints. IN FRANITS, W. E. (Ed.) Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art : realism reconsidered. Cambridge [England] ; New York, Cambridge University Press., p176 60
emphasized by Erasmus and Castiglione, a loving father with a son for whom he had great plans had hardly any other choice than securing an upright posture for his son – despite the great hazards of such an operation. 198 Drawing also fitted Constantijn Sr.’s idea of a proper education. According to Svetlana Alpers, “[d]rawing had already been considered a skill suitable to the wealthy in ancient times. Huygens established this by quoting Pliny, to which we can add the example of Castiglione's The Courtier, which also commends drawing.” 199 The similarity of Constantijn Sr.’s educational program for his sons – and Christiaan Sr.’s curriculum, forming the model of the former’s plan – with Castiglione’s envisioned education for his perfect Courtier has been noticed by others too. 200 There may also have been significant influences from Justus Lipsius’s neo-Stoic teachings. Christiaan Sr., Constantijn Sr.’s father, had based the core of his educational program on “a little known tract on the education of princes and nobles, written by Philips Marnix [Lord of] St. Aldegonde.” What strikes one directly is Marnix's emphasis on relieving mental exercise with physical exercise. Books are important, so the author tells us, but so is relaxation. Boys should exert their limbs and thereby develop an elegant gait and posture. 201 The writer also put great emphasis on “self-control, rationalism and the judicious weighing of alternatives before making any decision or acting on it,” essential neo-Stoic values. 202 198 Ibid., p176. See also on the importance of upright posture in the early-modern period: BURGUIÈRE, A. & LEBRUN, F. (1996) Priest, Prince and Family. IN BURGUIÈRE, A., KLAPISCH-ZUBER, C., SEGALEN, M. & ZONABEND, F. (Eds.) A history of the family. 1st Harvard Press ed. Cambridge, Mass, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press., p149-50 199 ALPERS, S. (1983) The art of describing : Dutch art in the seventeenth century, Chicago, University of Chicago Press., p24 200 HUYGENS, C. & HEESAKKERS, C. L. (1987) Mijn jeugd, Amsterdam, Querido., p137; HOFMAN, H. A. (1983) Constantine Huygens (1596-1687) : a christian-humanist bourgeois-gentilhomme in service of the House of Orange, Utrecht, HES Uitgevers., p34 201 ROODENBURG, H. (1997) How to Sit, Stand, and Walk. Toward a Historical Anthropology of Dutch Paintings and Prints. IN FRANITS, W. E. (Ed.) Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art : realism reconsidered. Cambridge [England] ; New York, Cambridge University Press., p178. The tract, “Ratio instituendae iuventutis” was written in 1583 and published in 1615. 202 ELZINGA, A. (1983) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 34, 295-303., p302. For a more elaborate discussion of the influence of neo-Stoic philosophy on the life of Constantijn Huygens Sr. please see HOFMAN, H. A. (1983) Constantine Huygens (1596-1687) : a christian-humanist bourgeois-gentilhomme in service of the House of Orange, Utrecht, HES Uitgevers., notably Chapter 2. Strengholt sees the Calvinist belief, more than humanism in its different forms as the essential ideal behind Christiaan Sr.’s and Constantijn Sr.’s educational programs for their sons. See STRENGHOLT, L., HUYGENS, C. & HEER, A. R. E. D. (1987) Constanter: het leven van Constantijn Huygens, Amsterdam, Querido., p15 61
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Christiaan Huygens - A family affai
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Abstract Christiaan Huygens - A fam
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present-day patent (the monopoly on
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Court, Constantijn Sr. requested th
Page 9 and 10: court, diplomacy and natural philos
Page 11 and 12: II. A “Grand Tour” de Force in
Page 13 and 14: opportunity to see the world, learn
Page 15 and 16: A same strategic use of his musical
Page 17 and 18: Constantijn’s objective - putting
Page 19 and 20: authorities out- and inside the Rep
Page 21 and 22: Barendrecht argues, the foreign min
Page 23 and 24: Constantijn Sr. may have encountere
Page 25 and 26: patronage of different ambassadors
Page 27 and 28: could be employed in that context v
Page 29 and 30: involved social and material benefi
Page 31 and 32: Council of States (Raad van State)
Page 33 and 34: From Huygens’s defense it shows t
Page 35 and 36: “honesty”), thus inviting the r
Page 37 and 38: this constituted but a relative sma
Page 39 and 40: 1627 to approximately f 300.000 in
Page 41 and 42: Orange - which itself in turn showe
Page 43 and 44: correspondence with and poems for h
Page 45 and 46: advice to the Stadholder. 139 This
Page 47 and 48: Post) by its natural inclusion in t
Page 49 and 50: Amongst the highest of the bourgeoi
Page 51 and 52: In many ways, Constantijn Sr. was p
Page 53 and 54: and England refused the diplomatic
Page 55 and 56: knowledge of the natural sciences.
Page 57 and 58: Constantijn Sr. used in his writing
Page 59: make “dry” matter more interest
Page 63 and 64: the seemingly dominant position for
Page 65 and 66: prominent role in the rest of their
Page 67 and 68: within the Dutch aristocracy throug
Page 69 and 70: Importantly, Constantijn Sr. made s
Page 71 and 72: applications he would later give th
Page 73 and 74: Marquis de Chambonière, Vicquefort
Page 75 and 76: donated his books to many of his no
Page 77 and 78: Christiana presented his evidence o
Page 79 and 80: VI. Zulekoms at Court Three galas i
Page 81 and 82: the father’s plans for Christiaan
Page 83 and 84: It seems likely that the father sti
Page 85 and 86: the summer of 1655 - first to Paris
Page 87 and 88: laudatory verse of Constantijn Sr.
Page 89 and 90: and sharing them with his brothers.
Page 91 and 92: appearances. Widely available and m
Page 93 and 94: than its literary value, may explai
Page 95 and 96: VII. The Business of Instruments -
Page 97 and 98: at many points the whole family Huy
Page 99 and 100: ii. Making and distributing instrum
Page 101 and 102: England in November 1658 346 and wa
Page 103 and 104: clocks. 357 Generally, the role of
Page 105 and 106: moment for these events. 363 As Huy
Page 107 and 108: the Zulichems, Father and Son: all
Page 109 and 110: from a repentant Petit himself, he
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VIII. Patronage and its Privileges
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You have acted wisely by not awaiti
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texts and inventions did vary a gre
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getting a privilege with the French
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operation” of Constantijn Sr. and
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observations. It is not true that C
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Appendix A The following list of bo
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Appendix B The following list of bo
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Folios - imprints of palaces, garde
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dans l’histoire………………
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BRUGMANS, H. L. & HUYGENS, C. (1935
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KAISER, F. (1846) Iets over de kijk
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SLIVE, S. & REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON V
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Christiaan Huygens – A family affair - Proeven van Vroeger

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