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View of Ambon
Also titled Gezicht op Ambon
c. 1617
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- frame: height 176.7 cm x width 296 cm x thickness 12.5 cm (support incl. frame)
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
This is a view of the Mollucan island of Ambon with a portrait of its first Dutch governor, Frederik Houtman, at the lower right. At centre is the Portuguese Fort Victoria, which was seized by the Dutch East India Company in 1605 because of the lucrative clove production. Houtman initially maintained good contacts with the Ambonese chiefs, but the company later mounted ruthless ‘punitive expeditions’ to counter the sale of cloves to its rivals.
