AMSTERDAM QUALITIES: CREATIVE SPIRIT
From spring to winter Amsterdam and other historic Dutch towns offer a creative, energetic and vibrant civic culture full of life. Dutch towns present a well-ordered, neat society marked by historic architecture, a fine set of canals and streets and these core qualities:
Civic virtue, Spirit of Enterprise, Freedom of Thought and Creativity.
Civic virtue: the local traders and businessmen forming their own power base and becoming more powerful than the old nobility.
Spirit of Enterprise: An attitude of outward looking, sailing the seven seas of the world looking for trade, profit and spheres of influence.
Statue of a strong working class woman who weathered the 1930s crisis.
Freedom of Thought: Erasmus on the high worth of every individual man. Coornhert writing law texts on how to be decent to prisoners. Grotius inventing international Sea law: “make peace, not war”, Spinoza jump-starting modern individualism and freedom of thought, opening the first door to the Age of Enlightenment.
Creativity: A country brimming with art, industrial design, out-of-the-box attitudes, a sense of humor and lateral thinking. Provo, hippies, youth culture and anti-authoritarian attitude starting out as fringe movements, and their lifestyle becoming mainstream.
Amsterdam is one of the best preserved inner cities. Walk with professional Art History Scholar with excellent teaching skills. Focus on History, Architecture, Society. In-depth or general level. Mornings are best.
Business card. The logo refers to Vermeer.
Larger images are available on this old school site.
Tour by Drs Kees Kaldenbach, a professional Art History scholar with excellent teaching skills. Specialist in Fine art and Design, Architecture and History. VIP entry.
Drs Kees Kaldenbach: „…he is wildly overqualified to be a guide . That is his secret… Trust me on this.” Gabe. Statement made February, 2017.
By the home of Dr Tulp, shown in the Rembrandt Anatomy.
Tour by professional Art History scholar with excellent teaching skills. Specialist in Fine art and Design, Architecture and History. VIP entry.