Museum Le Mayeur - Sanur

SG

[quote=Roy]Hey Simon, do you think there is a VOC veterans group? :lol: :lol:[/quote] Way up high perhaps. Hell, if Americans has The Daughters of Mayflower, maybe Holland has Refugees of the VOC :D

Roy

Long ago, and in a world far, far away, I used to exhibit annually at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) antiques show in Alexandria, Virginia. I wouldn’t wish that bee’s nest of old hags on my worst enemy. :lol:

SG

I've spent a fair amount of time looking at prints of old Sunda Kelapa from the 17th and 18th Century and it fascinates me. As you say..quite stunning, and it's amazing how much survives..like this warehouse which is clearly evident in many of these prints Here is the wonderful but very run down VOC warehouse last month:

Roy

OK Bert, I'll stick to talking about Batavia only, so long as that's not going to bother you too much! :) BTW Simon, it occurred to me that very likely most of the readers of this forum have little idea just how beautiful Batavia was at the height of the VOC. Below is a print from our collection which dates from 1755. It is a vue d’optique, a hand painted engraving by Francois Xavier Habermann showing the Hotel Batavia and the courtyard. We have several more early views of Batavia but I haven’t photographed them, and I don’t remember exactly where I stored them. Anyway, this gives a little view into the splendor that once was Batavia. Sorry but the photo is a bit cropped on the right.

Roy

Next time you are there, grab that VOC cannon for me, will ya? :P I'll dig out more of those early prints and post them as soon as I can. Cheers!

tintin

Good observation by [b]Rudy the Horrible,[/b] who obviously knows what he is talking about, and excellent and most instructive explanation by Roy who also knows his stuff. Now, if only, Roy, you could present your many points of view on Bali in the same style… :lol:

Roy

[quote]Now, if only, Roy, you could present your many points of view on Bali in the same style…[/quote] Whatever do you mean by that Daniel? :shock: I also present the facts about Bali in the same way...with documentation and accuracy! :P :lol: :lol:

tintin

Not so much the accuracy of your facts, but the tone, Roy, the tone. :)

Roy

Sorry Daniel, but I'm tone deaf! :P I can't hold a note, not for the life of me. :D

Rudy the Horrible

Hi all, I'm new here.. Just want to make a quick comment on that beautiful picture from Roy : if I am not mistaken, the building in the middle is the Stadhuis (still there), and the building on the left is a church (The New Dutch Church, built in 1736 replacing the (obviously) Old Dutch Church a.k.a Kruiskerk). The location is now used as Museum Wayang (Jan Pieterzoen Coen a.k.a Murjangkung, the founder of Batavia was buried there) Here we can see the closer view of the New Church http://www.rendez-vous-batavia.nl/ Something is bothering me; I've just realised that if I stood facing Stadhuis, the church should be on my right hand side. , not looking for argument here, just curious. and here we can see the Church is on the right side (when facing the Stadhuis) of the Stadhuis http://www.rendez-vous-batavia.nl/ About the VOC veteran group/Daughters of the American Revolution: I've heard the term "Belanda Depok", they might be descendants of VOC,; I've even met one named Meyer, unfortunately she was a girl in her 20s, so she didn't know much about history, but she did confirm about Indonesian with Dutch surnames. Also, I doubt any Indonesian would proudly labeled as 'Keturunan VOC' (no offense to the Dutch people here; but from Indonesian point of view, the VOC was....not a friend) SG : if you think that warehouse is ran down, wait until you see the Eastern Wall .... PS: the Stadhuis is by far the creepiest place I've ever been to in Jakarta.

Roy

Hi Rudy, and welcome to the forum. I’m impressed! [quote]“Something is bothering me; I've just realised that if I stood facing Stadhuis, the church should be on my right hand side. , not looking for argument here, just curious.”[/quote] There is an excellent reason for that, which I initially thought about explaining, but thought it might be too boring. This print is called a “vue d’optique” also known as a perspective view. These are a special type of popular print published in Europe during the mid to second quarter of the 18th century and are meant to be viewed in an optical machine, called an optique. This “machine” uses a mirror, thus the image as viewed in the optique is the reverse of the way in which the print looks out of the machine. So, the artist of this has to keep this in mind and not reverse his drawing when engraving the copper plate. Copper printing plates are of course already reversed, so when printed, the image printed on the paper is not reversed. Below I have re-presented this print un-cropped. Note the title at the very top...VUE DE L’HOTELL DE BATAVIE is reversed. Only that title (not the writing on the bottom of the print) would appear in the optique machine, and reflected off a mirror, it would read correctly as well as the view showing the correct positions of the buildings. These vues d’optique as viewed in the optique machine where intended to give as much as a three dimensional illusion as possible, thus the linear perspective is greatly exaggerated in such prints. So, as viewed in the optique machine, the church would be properly on your right side!

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