Rembrandt resided in the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam from 1640 to 1656. His house, Jodenbrêe Straat, No. 4, next door but one to the bridge, is marked by a simple memorial tablet.
Plate XXV.—Panelled Bedstead.
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
We can form a very clear idea of the general appearance of a street of the Renaissance period from many old houses that still stand in Belgium and Holland. The interiors in some cases we can also reconstruct by the aid of inventories. Mechlin is particularly rich in buildings of the sixteenth century. The Mont de Piété, once the home of Canon Busleyden, is a Gothic building of 1507, restored in 1864; on the Quay au Sel, there are several old timber-houses, the Salm Inn, with a Renaissance façade of 1530–34, and a house in the Franco-Flemish style, very rich in detail. There is also an interesting timber-house in the Quay aux Avoines.
Bruges and Ypres contain several houses of the seventeenth century; Ghent has two private houses on the Quai de la Grue (one of which is named the Vliegenden Hert); and Antwerp, several Guildhouses. Holland is richer in houses and buildings of this century. In Amsterdam, the royal palace—the Dam—was built in 1648 as a Town Hall by Jacob van Kampen; the house of Admiral de Ruyter may be seen on the Prins-Hendrik-Kade, and the house of Baron Six in the Heerengracht, and on the Heerengracht and Keizersgracht are many houses of the seventeenth century.
There are also a number of seventeenth century houses of great interest to the student of architecture in Alkmaar. The Stadhuis, in Enkhuisen, dates from 1688; Sneek has a water-tower of 1615, which was restored in 1878; Zwolle has a guard-house of 1614; and the police-office of Deventer is a Renaissance structure of 1632. Several brick buildings of the seventeenth century still stand in the Zaadmarkt and Groenmarkt of Zutphen; there are several houses in Bommel of this period, including the famous house of Maarten van Rossum, now a district court; and the weigh-house and meat market of Gouda date from 1668 and 1691.
The doors and interior woodwork of these houses in many cases are precious records of the skill of the Dutch and Flemish wood-carvers of the period.
One of the most famous houses in Mechlin in the second half of the seventeenth century was a commandery called the Pitsembourg; and it was selected in 1668 as the most suitable residence for the High Constable of Castile and Leon.
An inventory of the furnishings of this establishment was taken in 1656, which enables us to go through the house.
The first room that we enter is called de Trappenye, and was used as an office. Here we find a picture representing the Birth of Christ and two pieces of sculpture—The Offering and The Three Kings, standing on two pedestals that bear the arms of Cratz (Cratz was commander of the House of Mechlin from 1564 to 1604). In this room are two large cases—one with twenty and the other with ten drawers, one lettered, and the other numbered—to preserve papers, documents and charts. It is warmed by a half-stove, halve stove, according to the inventory. For diversion, there is a backgammon board with white pieces of boxwood, and black of lignum-vitæ.