De Zeventiende Eeuw. Jaargang 22

[p. 209]

Summary
Images of Leiden^⋆

This special edition of De Zeventiende Eeuw sprang from the work of an interdisciplinary research group of staff members and PhD students in Pallas, the institute for arthistorical and literary studies at the University of Leiden, and a number of colleagues from other universities and research institutes. Their research focused on the self-image and representation of Leiden after the Relief of 1574 and the reception of those images within the Republic and elsewhere.

The questions that this collection of articles asks about the concept of identity have been central to historical studies in the Netherlands as well as internationally since the close of the 1980s. At the time, the concept of ‘national identity’ was questioned as to its validity in historical research. The Amsterdam professor of modern European literature Joep Leerssen made a particularly significant contribution to the discussion with the introduction of a theoretical model of the formation of literary images known as imagology, a model that has its origins in comparative literary studies.

In this collection, the authors have attempted broadly to relate the theory of imagology to the city of Leiden. Their aim was to discover to what extent the city sought to position and profile itself - also with regard to other Dutch cities - by means of the presentation of images. Who can be seen as important agents in this process? How were these images received, within and without the boundaries of the Republic?

Dirk Jaap Noordam shows how Leiden attempted to profile itself as ‘ideal city’ by adhering to contemporary Italian ideas of urban expansion and the improvement of the social and living climate. However, the Leiden city administration failed to meet other criteria for an ‘ideal city’, such as education and care of the poor. Time and again, the city took ad hoc measures to ‘prevent unrest and act humanely at the same time’. Conspicuous in this respect are the measures regarding single women.

Christine Kooi demonstrates that the religious freedom in the city was largely a matter of theory. The major church buildings in seventeenth-century Leiden were in the hands of the Reformed Church. Those who adhered to dissenting ideas were allowed to profess their religion in its shadow, as long as this did not disturb social unity and order. This order and unity could not be taken for granted after 1574, when large groups of economic refugees established themselves in the city and stimulated the textile industry.

Agnes Sneller demonstrates that Jan van Hout, the author of the Loterijspel (raffle play, 1596), was more aware of the far-reaching social changes brought about by the growth

⋆ Met dank aan Kristine Steenbergh en William Bourke.

[p. 210]

of the textile industry than researchers have realised to date. In the female character Calleken, Van Hout sketches an image of the Flemish female immigrant who maintains her position as an independent working woman within the textile industry in the early modern period.

Analysing existing paintings as well as photos and prints of works of art lost when the Leiden town hall caught fire in 1929, Marike Hoogduin-Berkhout tries to reconstruct the programme for the decoration of the town hall between 1575 and 1700. She refers to the iconography of other town halls in cities in the Republic to show how Leiden distinguished itself by means of images. Here, too, it appears that the siege and relief of the city and the liberation from the enemy by God's hand formed an important theme in which connections were sought with biblical motifs. Outstanding examples from the history of the city, relating to such themes as justice and good administration, were also placed in a biblical and classical context. Furthermore, the University of Leiden, which had a curator's room in the town hall, was emphatically present in the iconography. Works of art, including religious representations by famous Leiden artists from before the iconoclasms of the Dutch Reformation, were energetically sought by the city administration as contributions to the fame of the city.

In their contribution, Katja Kleinert and Cécile Tainturier analyse the studio images of seventeenth-century Leiden painters, a type of painting that flourished in this city in particular. These paintings, which should not be seen as a reflection of the daily work in an artist's studio, are constructed from a repertoire of set elements. To a greater extent than their professional colleagues in other cities, artists in Leiden prided themselves on their learning and identified themselves with Leiden as university town and as a city of publishers.

Using texts and images, Leonore Stapel shows that in descriptions of the Dutch Republic, representations of Leiden are defined by the internationally renowned university, even if the old buildings in which it was housed are not reproduced. The city itself, however, preferred to draw attention to the modern textile industry, which provided work and welfare for a majority of the population. The fact that this image of Leiden did not particularly catch on can be explained by the fact that the university maintained a unique position in the area, while wool was also being produced in Delft, Haarlem and Amsterdam.

Madeleine van Strien-Chardonneau shows us the image that Jean-Nicolas Parival sketched of Leiden in his Les Délices de la Hollande. It was published in 1651 but was sold in adapted versions until 1728. For Parival, the city took pride of place amongst Dutch cities - European cities even - because of its beauty and the quality of the surroundings, with its countryside and the proximity of the sea, its heroic past, good administration, charitable works and thriving university. Parival expressly mentions the eight city gates as well.

Paul Smith concentrates on the literary genre of the ‘Délices’ and in particular on the French-language, illustrated description of the city, Les Délices de Leide (1753), published by Pieter van der Aa. Smith shows how the author enters the city, walks along the sights and is guided in and out of the city through the different gates. This description prop-

[p. 211]

agates the idea of Leiden as ideal city, referring as it does to the octagonal shape of Rome, inscribed within a circle. The green surroundings, which provide good agricultural products, are described with the circular Burcht at its centre, the oldest and highest point of the city. The circular ‘Theatrum Anatomicum’ is introduced as counterpoint and ‘modern’ monument, with its extensive catalogue as material centre of the book.

The appreciation of one's own history, measuring the new against the old, continuity between past and present - these appear to be the significant constants in the way in which Leiden profiled itself in the seventeenth century. It appears to have been a deliberate strategy on the part of the city fathers to create a new identity for a city which, after a period of great tumult and demographic changes as the result of immigration, was in need of peace and stability. This particular strategy was intended to support the ‘norms and values’ of Leiden after the Relief of 1574.