Inspired by late 17th c. bird ceilings. Two new painted ceilings on antique floorboards for a 1670’s Herengracht monument,
Kingfisher, Blue Heron and ceiling beam.
Detail on the new painted ceilings at Herengracht 574
Birds in full flight on some recently discovered 17th century Amsterdam ceilings, were inspiration for two newly designed paintings done on over a hundred pieces of antique floorboard, installed between the beams of a 1670’s Herengracht monument.
Hidden birds.
Flying birds painted above your head on the boards between the ceiling beams, enjoyed a short two decades of being highly fashionable roughly between 1660 and ‘80. But, as fashions do, they go out of style eventually, and in the following centuries all of these vivid birds were covered, either by elaborately carved rococo ceilings, 19th century plaster or even simply overpainted.
Reviving a genre.
So when its current owner decided to restore her newly acquired 1670’s canal “palazzo” as a family home, after decades of being in use as bank office stripped of its original floors and all but every historic interior detail, one of my first proposals was obvious.
Doing a new interpretation of 17th c Amsterdam bird ceilings has been a long cherished dream, and this was the perfect occasion, as a house from this date could once have held such a ceiling, and there’s no way of knowing if it actually did.
I really like that idea..
Flying birds painted above your head on the boards between the ceiling beams, enjoyed a short two decades of being highly fashionable roughly between 1660 and ‘80. But, as fashions do, they go out of style eventually, and in the following centuries all of these vivid birds were covered, either by elaborately carved rococo ceilings, 19th century plaster or even simply overpainted.
Reviving a genre.
So when its current owner decided to restore her newly acquired 1670’s canal “palazzo” as a family home, after decades of being in use as bank office stripped of its original floors and all but every historic interior detail, one of my first proposals was obvious.
Doing a new interpretation of 17th c Amsterdam bird ceilings has been a long cherished dream, and this was the perfect occasion, as a house from this date could once have held such a ceiling, and there’s no way of knowing if it actually did.
I really like that idea..
In recent years seventeenth century painted birds have been discovered behind wood, paint or plaster on several locations. There is something strikingly appropriate about these animals resurfacing in this time of biodiversity crises.
Barn owls
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Some years ago a mid 18th century ceiling painting was removed from its frame for restauration, revealing behind it an older ceiling filled with birds for the first time in centuries. Eighteenth century fashion had changed the taste for these kind of decorations into a more classical orientated and idealized imagery, while Amsterdam had changed from a city of tradesmen and shipping companies into an economy of bankers and shareholders, people with an urge to show off a certain amount of cultural bagage. A process also known as the artistocratization of the Dutch merchant elite.
In recent years seventeenth century painted birds have been discovered behind wood, paint or plaster on several locations.
In recent years seventeenth century painted birds have been discovered behind wood, paint or plaster on several locations.
These new ceiling paintings are about birds that have been stuck behind paint, wood or wallpaper for centuries, slightly deformed - or choreographed like flowers in an herbarium.
Another Blue Heron crossing a ceiling beam,
Detail on the new painted ceilings at Herengracht 574.
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“Le rappèl des Oiseaux” ( a title derived from one of Rameau’s compositions) was installed in July 2022.
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Grey Heron and grass snake
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A swan, green finches and common linnets
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Starlings
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Spotted Woodpecker
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Stratification…
A ceiling with 17th c. birds visible for a short while, as the 18th c painted canvas covering it underneath was taken out of its rococo frame for restoration. Some weeks later these 350 year old animals would be covered again, hidden in the dark once more for centuries to come.
This idea was taken as inspiration for the new ceilings at Herengracht 574.
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Another set of seventeenth century birds being uncovered recently.
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