Stuff Jos van der Woude cares about

For more than a decade now, I shoot photos of ancient art in museums around the world. A particular favorite of mine is ancient Egyptian art. At the start of 2016 I have about 1400 photos of Egyptian art. In 2002, I started out with a simple Sony digital point-and-shoot camera, but more recently I use a professional Canon digital single reflex camera. You can take a look at the gear section (link opens in a new window) of this blog, if you are interested in the photography part.This ancient art gallery (link opens in a new window) contains a selection of these photos in chronological order of date taken. For the time being this gallery contains ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek art photos. In a few cases, when photography is not allowed in a particular museum, I have resorted to using scans. This is very unfortunate. I have tried to correctly identify all works of art in the captions using various sources. Firstly, in recent years I always take an additional photo of the label and enter this text in the caption. If a label is not available, or if I forget to shoot the label, I use art books, Wikipedia and Google. Sometimes it takes a considerable amount of time to identify a particular work of art. This form of treasure hunting is part of the fun! If things work correctly you will be able to land on the right photo page using an appropriate Google search for the work of art you are interested in. If I have it, that is. The plan is to extend this gallery with other ancient art (Byzantine and Roman) over time.

Introduction

May 4th, 2015 we visited the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden on a whim, because we read the museum would be closed for renovations, at least for the rest of the year. The Egyptian department is my favorite, so we went there first. But on the upper floor my eye caught something else. I took a photo of this strange piece of jewelry, and once back home, I researched it. Read on to find out what I discovered about this fascinating piece of jewelry...

The Gemma Constantiniana is one of the greatest cameos from classical antiquity. It was made in honour of Constantine’s victory over his rival Maxentius in AD 312. It is a large agate of two layers of grey and brown (21.1 × 29.7 cm) and shows an Emperor and his family on a chariot drawn by two centaurs trampling on fallen enemies, while a flying Victory holds a wreath. Both the style and the scene depicted point to the fourth century: Constantine the Great is pictured with his spouse Fausta, his son Crispus and his mother Helena. Comparison with Constantinian coins and a close scrutiny of the scene portrayed lead to the conclusion that this work of art was produced in the years 312—315 and served as a present on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Emperor's accession, in 315. Thus it is the aristocratic counterpart of Constantine's popular triumphal arch. The guilded frame with gems was added in the 17th century in Antwerp.

It is possible to trace at least part of the long way the cameo travelled from the Emperor's treasure house in Rome to the Rijksmueum Oudheden in Leiden, The Netherlands, mostly thanks to meticulous recordkeeping of the Dutch East India Company.

Time line of events

Date	Place	Events
315	Rome	Cameo made in honour of Constantine’s victory over his rival Maxentius in AD 312. It served as a present on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Emperor's accession, in 315
330?	Constantinople	Roman capital transferred from Rome to Constantinople, cameo probably taken there.
1204	Constantinople	4th Crusade, sack of Constantinople. Cameo taken to France?
1204-1622	France?	Unknown, probably in a monastery or church in France
1622	Antwerp	Cameo in possession of Peter-Paul Rubens, great Baroque painter and collector of ancient cameos
1628	Antwerp	Frame with gems added by Theodoor Rogiersz in Antwerp.
1628, Oct	Amsterdam	Taken to Gaspar Boudaen in Amsterdam to be sold to the Great Mogul of India.
1628, Oct 28	Texel	The Batavia under command of Francisco Pelsaert leaves Texel with the Great cameo as its most valuable item.
1629, Jun 4	Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Austalia	At about 5 a.m. on 4 June 1629 the Dutch ship the Batavia, belonging to the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie - VOC), on its way to Java with 316 people on board, struck Morning Reef in the Wallabi Group of the Abrolhos Islands, about sixty kilometres off the central west coast of Western Australia.
1629, Jun 4 – Sep 17	Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Austalia	Cameo in possession of the mutineers of the infamous Batavia Mutiny. In the absence of captain Pelsaert the mutineers, led by Jeronimus Cornelisz, callously murdered about 110 men, women and children, in many cases with horrific savagery and cruelty. Cornelisz never committed any of the murders himself, although he tried and failed to poison a baby (who was eventually strangled). Instead, he used his powers of persuasion to coerce others into doing it for him, firstly under the pretense that the victim had committed a crime such as theft. Eventually, the mutineers began to kill for pleasure, or simply because they were bored. He planned to reduce the island's population to around 45 so that their supplies would last as long as possible. Although Cornelisz had left the soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, to die, they had in fact found good sources of water and food on their islands. Initially, they were unaware of the barbarity taking place on the other islands and sent pre-arranged smoke signals announcing their finds. However, they soon learned of the massacres from survivors fleeing Cornelisz' island. In response, the soldiers devised makeshift weapons from materials washed up from the wreck. They also set a watch so that they were ready for the mutineers, and built a small fort out of limestone and coral blocks. Cornelisz seized on the news of water on the other island, as his own supply was dwindling and the continued survival of the soldiers threatened his own success. He went with his men to try to defeat the soldiers marooned on West Wallabi Island. However, the trained soldiers were by now much better fed than the mutineers and easily defeated them in several battles, eventually taking Cornelisz hostage. The mutineers who escaped regrouped under a man named Wouter Loos and tried again, this time employing muskets to besiege Hayes' fort and almost defeated the soldiers. But Wiebbe Hayes' men prevailed again, just as Pelsaert arrived in the rescue ship the Saardam. A race to the rescue ship ensued between Cornelisz's men and the soldiers. Wiebbe Hayes reached the ship first and was able to present his side of the story to Pelsaert. After a short battle, the combined force captured all of the mutineers.
1629, Oct 2	Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Austalia	Cameo retrieved from mutineers. Pelsaert decided to conduct a trial on the islands, because the Saardam on the return voyage to Batavia would have been overcrowded with survivors and prisoners. After a brief trial, the worst offenders were taken to Seal Island and executed. Cornelisz and several of the major mutineers had both hands chopped off before being hanged on October 2. Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom de Bye, were considered only minor offenders and were abandoned on the Western Australian coast, probably at the mouth of Hutt River, about 450 kilometres north of where Perth now stands. They were provided with a boat, food, toys and trinkets to trade, and a set of instructions. Thus they became the first Europeans to take up residence in Australia, and their instructions directed them to “make themselves known to the folk of this land.” Reports of unusually light-skinned Aborigines in the area by later British settlers have been suggested as evidence that the two men might have been adopted into a local Aboriginal clan. Some amongst the Amangu people of the mainland have a blood group specific to Leyden, in Holland. However, numerous other European shipwreck survivors, such as those from the wreck of the Zuytdorp in the same region in 1712, may also have had such contact with indigenous inhabitants.
1629, Dec	Batavia (Jakarta)	The remaining mutineers were taken to Batavia for trial. Five were hanged, while several others were flogged. Cornelisz's second in command, Jacop Pietersz, was broken on the wheel, the most severe punishment available at the time. A board of inquiry decided that Pelsaert had exercised a lack of authority and was therefore partly responsible for what had happened. His financial assets were seized, and he died a broken man within a year. On the other hand, the common soldier Wiebbe Hayes was hailed as a hero. The Dutch East India Company promoted him to sergeant, and later to lieutenant, which increased his salary fivefold. Of the original 341 people on board the Batavia, only 68 made it to the port of Batavia.
1632	Suratte, India	Cameo taken aboard the warship Amboina to Suratte, India for sale to governor Mirmousa. No deal.
1633	Batavia	Cameo returns to Batavia onboard the warship ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
1634, Aug	Batavia	Cameo stays in Batavia; drawings are sent to Hindoustan and Persia in order to sell it. No deal.
1636?	Gamron, Persia	Cameo sent to Gamron in Persia. No deal.
1637, Jun	Batavia	Cameo returns to Batavia.
1637, Dec	Achin, Sumatra	Bad weather forces premature return to Batavia.
1638, Feb 24	Achin, Sumatra	King of Atjeh refuses to buy the cameo.
1640	Suratte, India	Cameo taken aboard the warship Nieuw-Zeeland to Suratte, India for sale to governor Mirmousa. No deal.
1641, Apr	Batavia	Cameo returns to Batavia aboard the warship Nieuw-Zeeland.
1641 - 1647	Batavia	Cameo in store
1647	Suratte, India	Gaspar Boudaen's son comes out to the East Indies and takes it to Suratte, but he, too, fails to sell it.
1653-1656	The Netherlands	Cameo returns to the heirs of Gaspar Boudaen in the Netherlands
1656-1756	The Netherlands	Unknown
1756, Sep 11	Amsterdam, de Munt	Cameo is auctioned for fl 5500 at the Munt in Amsterdam, probably to Jacob Hop.
1783, Oct 1	Amsterdam, de Munt	Cameo is up for auction at the Munt in Amsterdam by the heirs of Jacob Hop (Pabst). No deal.
1808	Paris	Cameo is taken to Paris and a detailed drawing is made by Lacour. Cameo is almost sold to Napoleon for ff 110.000. Events in 1813 preclude a deal.
1823	Leiden	King Willem I buys the cameo for fl 50.000 from Jacob Hop’s grandson. Cameo is taken to the Royal Coin Cabinet in Leiden.
2007, May 24	Utrecht	Cameo is transferred to the Money museum in Utrecht
2014, Jan 15	Leiden	Cameo is transferred to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden

Sources

Rupert Gerritsen, Austalia's First Criminal Prosecutions in 1629, 2011

Looking back at the family photos of my youth, it seems my brother Harmen and I were inseparable. It seems strange, because when we were older we chose very different paths. Harmen liked drawing pictures and received the highest marks for them in elementary school. I liked to read books I borrowed from the public library. I went to University to study physics and later psychology. My brother Harmen was accepted at the Art Academy in Groningen.

My mother claims my brother was an adorable and sweet boy when little. From the age of 10 however, Harmen was not an easy person to get along with. We all used to say he was “a bit strange”; this label did not make interacting with him any easier; he had an uncanny way of getting on people’s bad side and make people uncomfortable; even irritated. Looking back, I realize Harmen often did not conform to informal rules of acceptable social behavior. Rules we all follow, without being aware of them most of the time. Only when someone does not follow these rules we notice something is a bit off.

Things turned a bit more worrisome when Harmen moved to Groningen. He did not seems to make any friends at school, his room always was a complete mess and he started venting really strange ideas about the world around him. After an incident in which Harmen destroyed some of my belongings while staying at my place, my father went to our family physician with Harmen. They were quickly referred to the University hospital in Groningen. Harmen stayed a while for observation and diagnosis at the clinic of prof. dr. van den Hoofdakker. Eventually he was diagnosed with an advanced case of schizophrenia and a long term stay in an institution was recommended. The first night Harmen was there, he decided he did not want to live like that and he ended his life on February 19th 1985.

Rest in Peace my dear brother. You will not be forgotten. Click on the following link to open a catalog of all known works of art by Harmen van der Woude. This opens in a new window. Works of Art by Harmen van der Woude

 

October 2013 I visited the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy. After having seen many great Italian masterpieces my eye caught something different. "This is not Italian, this looks more Northern European" I mumbled to myself.

Lo and behold, it was a painting by a Dutch master called Jacob-Cornelisz van Oostsanen.  To my shame I have to admit, I had not heard of him before. I did like the painting though, and looked at it in detail. I also took a photograph and then went on to see many more Italian masterpieces ... To my great surprise a couple of months later I saw the very same painting in a large article about a new exhibition opening in both Amsterdam and Alkmaar. Here was the chance to see this painting again, apparently cleaned and accompanied by a great many other works by Van Oostsanen from all over the world. What an unique opportunity! So I went to the Amsterdam Museum to see "my painting" again. It is called "The Nativity with the Boelen family as donors". The colors were much brighter than I remembered them. This is the effect of the painting having been cleaned. This time I studied the painting in even more detail and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. In this painting Bethlehem is situated in a very Dutch looking coastal landscape. Cool!

A weekend later I went to Alkmaar to see the rest of the exhibition. The painting I liked best is on view at the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and it is called "Noli me Tangere" (Latin: Do Not Touch Me). The colors are spectacular and the detail is unbelievable. Apart from the main scene there are many more smaller scenes in the painting. The smallest is Jesus sitting down at a table with others in one of the buildings in the city in the background. It is too small to see on this photograph! The painting just does not look like it was made in 1507. So who was Jacob-Cornelisz van Oostsanen? Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (1475-1533) is the earliest artist in Amsterdam that we know by name he was a celebrated artist in the early sixteenth century. His studio on the Kalverstraat, then already a fashionable street, developed into a highly productive workshop, taking commissions from patrons in Holland and beyond. He provided portraits and religious pictures, as well as combinations of the two, whether in print or oils. Van Oostsanen is one of the great masters from the Northern Netherlands who laid the foundation for the flourishing success of Dutch art that followed. His works show how art developed during his lifetime from the late medieval style to the early Renaissance. His taste for unexpected details and the exceptional quality of the thirty or more surviving paintings, as well as his two hundred woodcuts, are spectacular to view.

Key to understanding why Jacob-Cornelisz van Oostsanen is relatively unknown in the Netherlands today, is the fact that he lived and worked in a Roman-Catholic Amsterdam just decades before the Protestant Reformation. Protestant reformers were sharply opposed to what they considered the idolatry of the Host. In 1566 during the "Beeldenstorm" (Iconoclastic Fury) a lot of Dutch Catholic art was destroyed by militant Calvinists. On May 26, 1578 a bloodless revolution turned Amsterdam from a Catholic city into a Protestant one. The Catholic town council was expelled, and from then on Catholics were no longer allowed to worship in public. Civic authorities also dissolved the convents and monasteries, and their properties — along with all Catholic churches — were confiscated. Moveable goods, like paintings, were mosty sold to foreign buyers and thus saved from destruction. 

Please do not forget to take a look at the ceiling paintings in the St Lawrence's church, next to the museum in Alkmaar. They are recently restored and awesome! It is Jacob-Cornelisz van Oostsanen's interpretation of The Last Judgement. Shown here is a tiny detail of this vast work of art. The photograph was taken with my new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens with an EF 1.4x III extender fitted.

The exhibition is on show until June 29, 2014 at three separate locations: The Amsterdam Museum Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar and the St Lawrence’s church in Alkmaar.

Recently I got to test my new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM in the field on a two day trip to Italy. I am really happy with this lens. It is tack sharp!

 

Just got back from a two day trip to Verona, Vicenza and Padua. In Verona we went to the San Zeno Maggiore church in order to see the Andrea Mantegna's San Zeno Altarpiece. In and near Vicenza we saw a lot of buildings designed by Andrea Palladio and in Padua we (obviously) went to see the Giotto frescoes in the Cappella degli Scrovegni. It was a great little trip!

As of December 19th 2013 I am the proud owner of a brand new Canon EOS 5D mark III digital camera. I have taken it on a trip to the Western part of the USA over the Xmas holidays and I am ready to share my first impressions:

 The photo to the left was shot in Death Valley shot during a recent trip to the USA.

• I love the larger view of this full-frame digital camera and I am still getting used to the apparent shrinking of focus distance of all my lenses 
• This camera really takes better quality pictures in situations with challenging light conditions
• The switch from my old 7D to this new 5D mark iii is effortless, because the controls and menu system are mostly identical
• It uses the same model battery and same memory card (CF) as my old 7D
• So now I am already eying the super telelens L offerings from Canon ... sigh

This weekend we went to Disneyland Paris. For three days in a row we were mangled, turned up side down, dropped from 10th floor, launched like a rocket, splashed and otherwise assaulted. All this for fun! I was totally exhausted after this.We were lucky to be there on July 14th, the main national holiday in France. We were treated to an extra great fireworks display to celebrate this occasion.

 

 The kids want to go again next year ...

Last week we were in Italy again (-: . The weather was great, the food as delicious as always and we spent many hours visiting museums, churches and other interesting sites. There is a whole list of things to talk about: The Uffizi in Florence, the national museum of medieval art San Matteo in Pisa, the little mountain town of Barga with its wonderful church, the Devil’s Bridge near Lucca, the Duomo in Lucca, the list goes on. Of all things worthy to share one subject stands out: the convent of San Marco in Florence. Why, you ask? The amazing frescoes by Fra Angelico for one thing and its link to Girolamo Savonarola, reformer and heretic who eventually was tortured and hanged for his alleged crimes in the main square of Florence.

San Marco
The San Marco church and convent is now a museum. I have visited Florence five or six times and yet this was my first visit to the San Marco museum. The reason for this has partly to do with its location, it is slightly out of the way in the northern part of the inner city and in addition to this it probably is a typical place to visit after you have seen all the main attractions. Nevertheless it is a real gem for its art and place in history. The convent we see today is basically unaltered since it was build in 1437 on a site of an earlier church. The new complex was occupied by the Dominican order and sponsored by Lorenzo di Medici, who had a personal cell here to retreat into.

Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico lived in this convent from 1436–1445 and during this time he painted many frescoes on the walls of the convent. What is special about these frescoes is their intended audience and effect. Mostly frescoes and paintings were meant to educate the general public about the Holy Scriptures. The frescoes Fra Angelico painted in this convent were meant to be seen only by the friars living there. These friars were literate and were very well aware of the stories in the bible. Fra Angelico painted these meditational frescoes with the specific purpose of evoking spiritual energy, thus assisting the friars in solitary payer and contemplation. In today's terms we would say that these frescoes show and evoke real human emotion. Please take a close look at the face of the Dominican friar in the picture to the right (Click image for a larger version in a separate window). And it is just that what is so special in a work of art from 1445, heralding the coming of a new age: The Renaissance. Put in yet another way: Fra Angelico realized the advancements made by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel and carried them further. Today, most works of art can only be seen out of their original context in a distant museum. The fact that these frescoes are still in their original places in the convent for which they were made makes them doubly special. There are not many places on Earth were you can see so much great art in its original unaltered context.

Girolamo Savonarola
Another famous inhabitant of this convent was Girolamo Savonarola. In fact he occupied Fra Angelico's cell from 1482 till his public hanging in the main square of Florence in 1498. I had read about this preacher, reformer, hertic before, but I had never really understood his significance till now. From an early age (as we know from letters to his father) he was appalled by the hypocracy of the clergy. Today we would call him a Puritan. He found his calling as a preacher when he impressed the public with his message that the Church had to change its corrupt ways. People were outright scared when he correctly predicted that a "Powerful Sword of the Lord  from the North" (King Charles VIII of France) would invade Italy and threaten Florence. The good citizens of Florence quickly austed their rulers, the di Medici's, and after that Savonarola convinced the French to bypass Florence all together and go after the real culprit instead: the Pope in Rome. For a short while Savonarola ran the city of Florence as a democratic theocracy. Depending on who's writing the account this was a paradise on earth, a haven of democracy in a corrupt world or sheer maddness reaching a climax in the carnival of 1497 where Savonarola organized troops of boys and girls to tour the city, house to house, and begged the people to give up their gauds and vanities, from cosmetics to pagan books and paintings, the worldly things that turned their hearts away from true Christian living. And soon in the great square of Florence rose a great pyramid, fifteen stories high, carnival masks, rich dresses women's ornaments, wigs, mirrors, powder puffs, rouge-pots, lip-sticks, cards and dice, perfume and cosmetics, books of poems and on magic, musical instruments, trinkets of all kinds and worldly paintings in which Greek nymphs displayed their unclothed shapes. When Savonarola attacked Pope Alexander VI directly, accusing him of debauchery, he took on an enemy too powerful to mess with. You might recognize the name of Pope Alexander VI and if you are wondering why it is because you know him from the TV series The Borgias. Yes, it is the very same Pope. The Pope excommunicated Savonarola (this did not bother him much) and threatened the Florentines with an interdict. This interdict meant in effect a trade embargo for the city of Florence. So Savonarola all of a sudden became a lot less popular with the good citizens of Florence. They forced him to shut up. But Savonarola was no the man to be shut up for long, he persisted in his ways preaching puritanism and calling for church reforms. Savonarola hinted at performing miracles to prove his divine mission, but when a rival Franciscan preacher proposed to test that mission by walking through fire, he lost control of the public discourse. Without consulting him, his confidant fra Domenico da Pescia offered himself as his surrogate and Savonarola felt he could not afford to refuse. A crowd filled the central square, eager to see if God would intervene and if so, on which side. The nervous contestants and their delegations delayed the start of the contest for hours. A sudden rain drenched the spectators and government officials cancelled the proceedings. The crowd disbanded angrily; the burden of proof had been on Savonarola and he was blamed for the fiasco. A mob assaulted the convent of San Marco. Savonarola and two friends were arrested and imprisoned. Under torture Savonarola confessed to having invented his prophecies and visions, then retracted, then confessed again. On the morning of May 23, 1498, the three friars were led out into the main square where, before a tribunal of high clerics and government officials, they were condemned as heretics and schismatics, and sentenced to die forthwith. Stripped of their Dominican garments in ritual degradation, they mounted the scaffold in their thin white shirts. Each on a separate gallows, they were hanged, while a fire was ignited below them to consume their bodies. There is a painting in the San Marco museum depicting this very scene, although not very realistically, because we know from written accounts the square was crowded with people both cheering and crying. Click on the picture to the right to open a larger version in a separate window.

Opinions
The Britannica online encyclopedia considers Savonarola a forerunner of Luther and mentions that in Worms, Germany Savonarola has a statue besides the statue of Martin Luther himself. The Catholic online encyclopedia mentions that the Pope had been very lenient and finally had to act against Savonarola to prevent a schism in the Roman Catholic Church. The statue in Worms is totally unwarranted in their view. Finally Machiavelli wrote in the Prince:"If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long — as happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe."

In 1982 Pope John Paul II beatified Fra Angelico and 1984 declared him patron of Catholic artists. It seems unlikely that Savonarola, Fra angelico's "cellmate" in the convent of San Marco, will be bestowed the same honor any time soon ...

This week we bought a little sculpture by Jean van der Poll. Officially it is untitled and it is listed as made in 1969. We call it "girl with ball". For the last three years this statue sat on our living room table. My wife's daughters Lisa and Janne gave it to us as a wedding present. More specifically they paid the art library's fee so that we could keep the statue for one year. For two years in a row we renewed this arrangement, because we really like it. This year they did not let us renew it again, so we bought it. I have googled the artist, but apart from a few old newspaper clippings, I did not find much. One of these clippings was an article "Metaal- en glaskunst van Jean v.d. Poll" dated October 3rd 1967 in "Utrechts Nieuwsblad". Apparently Jean van der Poll held an exhibition in Bilthoven around that date. The art critic mentions an object he calls "girl with ball". This has to be our girl! The art library has another sculpture by the same artist. Presently someone else has this work, but we have already reserved it.

UPDATE (07-05-2014): The artist contacted us and we met in his home. We showed him our two sculptures (yes, we bought the second one too) and he showed us a lot of his other work. He told us he is terminally ill and he and his wife really appreciated us coming to see him and show him his own two sculptures from so long ago. It was a memorable meeting.

Well after dabbling for six months with Simple PHP blog, last week I installed Serendipity, a much more professional blogging system.

Things I like about Serendipity:
- professional software, very stable, no crashes or blank pages
- it can use the Postgresql database as a back-end which I already use for other applications
- many, many plugins: karma, comments, hitmap, statistics, spamblocks, IPv6 check, etc ...
- customized my very own "look & feel", based on the bulletproof style sheet, nice!
- special simplified styles for iPad and iPhone users, very cool!

Things I like less about Serendipity:
- minimal documentation, installing some plugins was a bit of a struggle
- some plugins are written for the Sqlite database and need (some) reworking for Postgresql

Overall I am very pleased. Every aspect of this blog is styled to my precise liking. The new banner image is meant to suggest the "larger picture". Which is exactly my aim writing this blog. So stay tuned! All counters and karma are reset as of September 1st 2012, the official launching date  of my new blog, version 1.0.

  Today Lisa received her Master of Arts degree in Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The title of her thesis is: "Outside the Box - The Added Value of Strategic Alliances for Dutch Popular Music Venues". In this Master thesis Lisa explores the reasons for popular music venues in the Netherlands to (not) enter into strategic alliances with other cultural organizations. It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to collect data. Lisa interviewed ten bookers/directors of some of the larger Dutch popular music venues. Here are some of the conclusions from the final chapter: "From the participants’ responses, it becomes clear that there are some major developments in the music industry. Most important developments are the growth of the Internet and globalization. The Internet causes audiences to become fragmented into smaller segments of visitors for larger segments of genres. Due to globalization, artists do fewer shows in The Netherlands. Participants consider experience an important theme, both for the audience as well for the artist. By booking at different locations, venues anticipate these changes. According to the researcher, this trend seems part of a bigger development. The interest of the city becomes an increasingly important factor in these partnerships on level of content. The researcher notices a shift in the function of the booker to some sort of promoter who divides the artists over the city depending on which location suits best. While participants are hesitant in their predictions, the researcher sees it as a step towards more cooperation." We are all very proud of her accomplishments!
My take: In the past culture was something for the rich and upper echelons of society - those who could afford it. After 1960s this all changed. In the Netherlands the government started to subsidize culture, especially the type of 'highbrow' or 'fringe' culture which was not commercially viable on its own. It seems with the current economic crisis this policy is under scrutiny again and about to change. In all fairness the world has changed. In the Netherlands even most adolescents are now 'rich' enough to be able to afford the monthly smart phone bills. Mostly because they now all have (part time) jobs - this was not the norm when I was young. So, I think there is a market. The fact that Pop festivals have sprung up like wildfire the last couple of years is proof of this since they are - by and large - not subsidized. But the transition from guaranteed income from government to commercially viable enterprises will no doubt be painful. The commercial viability of popular music venues in Amsterdam is beyond doubt; they are and will continue to thrive. But the economic viability of venues in the provincial towns in the Netherlands is in question. Just image asking Madonna to perform at a gig in Groningen. "Where the **** is Groningen?" These harsh economic facts-of-life were dampened by government intervention for a long time. But, The times they are a-changin' (again)

This summer we revisited Tuscany, revisited Cortona and revisited the little Museo Diocesano. Actually it was only on the third or fourth visit to Cortona, last year, we discovered this little gem. On the outside it is completely unremarkable. It sits right opposite of the Cathedral in Cortona, so it is easy to locate. It is just very unremarkable, on the outside ...

On the inside it is just great. It is home to many world renowned paintings by Luca Signorelli and Fra Angelico. Two great artists of the early Italian Renaissance. Last year when we were here it was very busy and photography was strictly forbidden. This year we were almost the only ones there and it seemed they turned a blind eye to people taking photos. This allowed me to take some great shots of these superb paintings.

In one of his first true masterpieces, The Cortona Annunciation, Fra Angelico has the Virgin and the Angel say some words, like in modern cartoons. On the left, confronting Mary with a half-genuflection is the Angel, his forefinger raised in expostulation as his lips recite the sentence: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee". On the right the Virgin, her hands crossed on her breast, leans forward from her gold-brocaded seat, reciting the words of St. Luke, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word". Also note Adam and Eve, in the upper left corner, being chased out of Paradise by an angel. This painting originally stood in the church of San Domenico in Cortona. In the 19th century it was moved to the Church of Gesù in Cortona and now it resides in the Museo Diocesano, still in Cortona. See the wikipedia entry for more information on Fra Angelico (opens in a new window). Click on the thumb image below to enjoy this painting in its full glory. Please be patient, it is huge.

 

 

 

 

They say people need to be made aware of the advantages of European integration.

Well, here it is!

If the United States of Europe were to exist and all present members of the European Union would be part of it, The United States of Europe would have won the 2012 Summer Olympics by a momentous margin.

Food for thought

London 2012		Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total

Austria			 0	  0	  0	  0

Belgium			 1	  2	  3	  6

Bulgaria		 0	  1	  0	  1

Cyprus			 0	  0	  0	  0

Czech Republic		 4	  3	  3	 10

Denmark			 2	  4	  3	  9

Estonia			 0	  1	  1	  2

Finland			 0	  1	  2	  3 

France			11	 11	 12	 34

Germany			11	 19	 14	 44

Greece			 0	  0	  2	  2

Hungary			 8	  4	  5	 17

Ireland			 1	  1	  3	  5

Italy			 8	  9	 11	 28

Latvia			 1	  0	  1	  2

Lithuania		 2	  1	  2	  5

Luxembourg		 0	  0	  0	  0

Malta			 0	  0	  0	  0

Netherlands		 6	  6	  8	 20

Poland			 2	  2	  6	 10

Portugal		 0	  1	  0	  1

Romania			 2	  5 	  2	  9

Slovakia		 0	  1	  3	  4

Slovenia		 1	  1	  2	  4

Spain			 3	 10	  4	 17

Sweden			 1	  4	  3	  8

United Kingdom		29	 17	 19	 65

		       ---	---	---     ---

United States of EU	93	104	109	306



United States           46       29      29     104

China                   38       27      22      87

Russia                  24       25      33      82

Lyme is a little town in Connecticut, USA. It is the namesake for Lyme disease. In 1975, Allen Steere MD from Yale and formerly the CDC, was called to Lyme when a suspicious number of children and adults were diagnosed with what was thought to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Now juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is by no means contagious, so how come 50+ people got this diagnosis in and around the town of Lyme? After a lot of interviewing, testing and reading about skin rashes as a result of a tick bite in the European research literature, Allan Steere connected the dots and published the first scholarly article on Lyme Disease.
Lyme Disease is now known to be the result of a bite by a tick carrying on of the three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. In about 25% of all cases a strange, spreading skin rash (erythema migrans) is seen before any other symptoms occur.
Because the cause is bacterial, the disease can be treated with antibiotics. In fact the recommended protocol in the Netherlands when bitten by a tick is: if skin rash is present, prescribe doxycycline in twice daily doses 100 mg for 10 days, if no skin rash is apparent, do nothing.
In most cases this is adequate. But there are people with persistent symptoms even when treated twice in this manner. They do not get better, in fact they seem to get worse over time. One of these people is my wife.
Exactly one year ago my wife went to see her physician with a sore knee and large red rash on the inside of her left knee. The doctor decided to test for Borrelia antibodies using the Western Blot test and to our surprise the test came back partly positive. She did have type IgG antibodies, but not type IgM. When type IgM antibodies are found this indicates an active infection. IgG antibodies are found whenever you have had a Borrelia infection in the past, even if this was years ago. My wife had in fact been bitten by a tick in the past, twice no less. In 2004 and again in 2010. In both cases she went to see her doctor, but since no rash was present in either case, nothing was done. Also after this test result the doctor to our consternation decided to do nothing. My wife did not find this satisfactory at all and asked for a second opinion from a renowned ‘Lyme expert’, a rheumatologist. This medical expert made a clinical Lyme diagnosis based on three symptoms: the red rash, a positive antibody test and mono-arthritis in the left knee. The treatment was a twice daily dose of 100 mg doxycycline for 30 days. Alas this did not help, and the expert doctor could do no more, because in his words “This has killed all bacteria and should have cured you.” But, it didn’t.
I will skip almost half a year ahead and at least four more doctors. Among the things we tried: another antibiotic Claritromycine, taken orally for one month, it did not help. Alternative medicine in the form of both light therapy and bio resonance therapy, they did not help at all. An MRI was done and a lumbar puncture, nothing there either. We went to a hospital of tropical diseases to rule out both dengue fever and chikungunya. They were ruled out. The symptoms persisted and in fact got worse and worse. In April my wife could not walk anymore; she limped. Her left knee was so swollen you could not distinguish the kneecap.



She had quit exercising a long time ago: almost a year of no fitness training and no one to two hour walks per week. The result: 5 kg (11 lbs) more wife.
After almost a year we ourselves secured a referral to the Lyme clinic of the Amsterdam University hospital. What a difference! Finally we were seeing doctors who were actually interested, intrigued and inquisitive. They took my wife’s symptoms very seriously, and just seemed to want to find out what was going on here! My wife responded to being taken seriously emotionally very positive and I was very pleased to finally meet open minded scientific inquiry without the time constraints of the 10 minute consult. Of course we realized that ‘the case of my wife’ just fitted their current research interests to a tee. That is what I call a classic win-win.
At first they drew a bit of fluid from inside her knee for testing. After two weeks or so we got the result: the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test was positive for Borrelia DNA. Now this test is the very same test we have come to know and love from the CSI shows. It basically clones and multiplies DNA a million or more times, so that it can be analyzed by a specialized machine. This test proved that there was Borrelia DNA inside the knee. Based on this test two things were decided: to perform keyhole surgery to take a sample of tissue and look at the inside of the knee and a treatment of a daily dose of a third generation antibiotic (ceftriaxon) intravenously administered for 14 days. The keyhole surgery showed us on a TV monitor that the inside of my wife’s knee was badly infected. Instead of smooth surfaces of cartilage we saw a lot of reddish tissue growth that was not supposed to be there. They took out several pieces of this infected tissue for testing and rinsed the inside of the knee. It can take up to six weeks to culture Borrelia in vitro. It is notoriously difficult. If this succeeds it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that my wife has an active Borrelia infection despite two treatments of the proper antibiotics. This is what most doctors simply do no believe to be possible. We will see, five more weeks to go before this comes to a conclusion. In the meantime my wife takes a daily dose of ceftriaxon antibiotic intravenously every day for an other week (two weeks in total). She has learned to administer this herself; it seems difficult to match the calendar of the home care team to the schedule of a self employed person. So this is where we are now. The good news is that the knee does seem a little better. My wife seems to walk more and limp a little less. Time will tell, and there is hope.
In the course of a year I have read a lot about Lyme. There is a lot of literature out there. It is difficult to separate the useful from the unhelpful. What follows is what I learned so far.

Lets start with the tick. This is really a very simple little animal with a two year life span. The tick is part of the class of Arachnids, so let’s say they are little spiders and have eight legs. During the course of their two year life span they eat only three times, mate once (and the females lay eggs) and then die. What is their staple food? Right, the blood of an other living animal or human. All this is simple enough, but they have several really clever tricks up their (eight) sleeves:
- Their saliva contains a powerful anesthetic. So when they bite you, you do not feel the sting and it does not itch.
- Their saliva contains an inflammation inhibitory protein. So this means there is no swelling and no inflammation; your immune system is not alerted to the treat.
- Their saliva also contains a blood thinner to facilitate sucking the blood.
- Last but not least their saliva contains a powerful glue which allows the tick to stay on you for up to five days.
- When the tick is done feasting on your blood it secretes an other chemical which act as a solvent for the glue. So after the glue is dissolved the tick simply drops to the ground.

Please notice there is really no jaw biting action involved here, just superglue.

All this is not too bad at all. A large animal or human is not really hurt at all by the amount of blood drained by a tick. The nasty bit starts when the tick is a carrier for an other organism like a bacteria. This can happen because the tick likes all types of blood: birds, rodents, deer, cattle and humans it feast on all of these without discrimination. So the tick makes blood contact with many different mammals and even reptiles and therefore is an ideal vector for the transmission of diseases across species.
The next big thing is the timing issue. Current medical opinion states that if you remove a tick quickly enough, say within 36 hours, no infection with the Borrelia bacteria will have occurred. This is based on research testing mice in USA. A tick can pick up a Borrelia bacteria when it feasts on the blood of an infected deer or rodent. The bacteria is at this point in the gut of the tick. Only when it next attaches itself to say a host (actually the mice in this experiment) the bacteria will travel from the gut to its salivary glands and from there on into the second host. This takes time. Research in the Russian Federation has shown that different types of Borrelia bacteria take different amounts of time to make this journey. This same Russian research also suggests that the strains of Borrelia bacteria prevalent in Europe and Asia make this journey faster than 36 hours. So this 36 hour respite seems only hopeful for people being bitten by a tick in the USA.
For a long time work done with park rangers in the Netherlands has influenced medical opinion about Lyme disease. In a large study government employed park rangers were tested for the Borrelia infection. These rangers had each removed about 10 ticks from their bodies over the years. The study showed that 15% of all park rangers tested positive for a Borrelia infection. Only 5% of the rangers who tested positive for a Borrelia infection ever developed Lyme disease. Conclusion was the risk of getting Lyme disease is small even for those routinely exposed to ticks. We now know that a specific genetic variation of the immune system is a precondition for actually getting Lyme disease. Only people who have this variation are getting Lyme. So yes, it is rare to get Lyme, but not for the reasons originally thought.
Speaking about genetics. Earlier I mentioned some of the clever tricks the tick has up its sleeve. Well if the tick is clever, the Borrelia bacteria can be called a genius of Total Cellular Warfare. Here’s a partial list:
- Borrelia assumes different forms in different hosts. Its DNA encodes survival mechanisms depending on the specific host (deer, human, rodent).
- With more than 1500 gene sequences, Borrelia contains at least 132 functioning genes. Furthermore it contains 21 plasmids. This is by far the largest number of plasmids in any bacteria and it is thought that these plasmid genes provide the ‘ rapid response’ system that allows Borrelia to cycle efficiently between ticks and mammals.
- It has genes that encode for suppression of the immune response of the host
- It mimics the outer skin of specific host cells to fool the immune system into thinking that the bacteria is a native cell.
- It hides itself into places the white blood cells find it hard to reach (joints, eyes, central nervous system)
- It utilizes the native fibrinolytic system to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and thus gain access to the central nerve system
- Borrelia has a slumber feature that allows it to lay dormant when faced with a powerful antibiotic. This can last for several months and the Borrelia wakes up after the threat is gone.

The relevant medical literature calls Borrelia ‘ a formidable infectious agent’.

Its ability to mimic the outer skin of specific hosts cells may be the underlying cause of the famous ‘induced auto immune response’. The immune system of genetically predisposed individuals actually notices the ruse and proceeds to attack these fake hosts cells. Too bad the original host cells are also attacked.
Last night my wife received the last dose of antibiotics. Actually she claims she feels a little better. Next week we have an appointment with the specialist. We will see.