The site of this leafy square was another city gate in the defensive walls constructed to protect the city in the Middle Ages. It was renamed Rembrandtplein when this cast iron statue by Louis Royer (1793-1868) was moved here in 1876. Cast in one piece, it is Amsterdam's oldest surviving statue in a public space and stands on a grey granite base bearing a replica of Rembrandt's signature. Coincidently, the square is near where the famous painter owned a house from 1639 to 1656.
As part of the artist's 400th birthday celebration in 2006, Russian artists Mikhail Dronov and Alexander Taratynov made bronze-cast representatives of a jaunty group of statues from his most famous painting and displayed them around Royer's work. We'll be seeing the "Night Watch" tomorrow at the Rijksmuseum.
Evidently, this is quite a lively area, especially with late-night dance groups who party here into the wee hours. Sam and I just wandered upon it while we were looking for a pharmacy on our way home from the Van Gogh Museum. She hoped to find some heat packs for her black eyes.
We also came across this rough clay statue reclining on a half roof outside a restaurant. As I snapped the photo, some guy sitting in a courtyard said something about sharing in the profits from my photograph. Huh? And because he wasn't smiling, I pretended I didn't speak English (again) and kept walking.
Which way do we go? Actually, we knew where we were when we got back to the museums. Circular route, anyone? And after stepping into a hotel along the way to ask about the nearest pharmacy (which was just around the corner), Sam discovered that any heat pads they had for sale were w-a-y too big for her face.
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