PIETER CODDE (Amsterdam 1599 – Amsterdam 1678)
A Guardroom Scene in a Church
signed in the lower center with the initials PC conjoined
oil on panel
19.3 x 30.5 inches (49 x 77.5 cm.)
THE BAD BOYS OF 1630S AMSTERDAM
No doubt the term ‘a real New Yorker’ is one that is familiar. How and who defines this is definitely up for debate – most often by a variety of self-described ‘real’ New Yorkers – and some long-time transplants. It isn’t a term used sparingly- as you can have ‘real’ Londoners and ‘real’ -insert any city- ‘ers. One thing that can be agreed on, the person must somehow demonstrate the grit of their city and exude that so called grit to others. In 17th century Amsterdam, that was undeniably an interesting mix!
As they say in Dutch, Pieter Codde (1599 – 1678) was an ‘echte Amsterdammer’ (a real Amsterdammer). He was born in the Paalhuis at the Nieuwe Brug and baptized in the Oude Kerk. He had a few notorious fights including one with a friend in which the two reduced to cutting each other with glass jars. No doubt he was someone who knew the grit of the city. He married at the age of 24, and at that point identified himself as an artist. Codde moved into the fashionable Sint Antoniesbreestraat, in the heart of Amsterdam, to live among other artists in the city. He ended up divorced after accusations of an assault on the maid, but somehow had made enough money in about 5 years’ time to amass a large art collection of his own, eventually purchasing an entire house on the Keizersgracht. These things may be somewhat scandalous to our 21st century ideals, but this was 17th century Amsterdam. It was an unforgiving city and Codde was its product.
Codde was also a creative force. Genre scenes were a staple of Golden Age production but not always particularly original. Many of these scenes were imported ideas from the south brought by Flemish mostly Protestants migrated to the north in mass to avoid persecution. From 1628-1638 Codde was at the height of his creativity, turning his talents towards the modernization of the Merry Company scenes so often found in 17th century genre paintings, as well as the formulation of one of the most distinctive subjects in Golden Age painting; the guardroom scene.
The Eighty-years’ war had resumed in the Netherlands and soldiers were frequently seen in the city of Amsterdam. Brothels, gambling halls and taverns were all patronized often by soldiers looking to blow off steam. Many soldiers were only paid a small sum upon joining the ranks and were expected to earn their wages by selling future loot and ransom received for people held as prisoners. These two practices were common and widespread. Unsurprisingly, the public had a fascination with these characters, romanticising their mercenary lives and holding them up as liberators. Thus, the carousing of these mostly lower-class bad boys through the city enjoying themselves were of intense interest to the far more socially focussed middle-class.
Codde seized on this fascination in the way only a real Amsterdammer could. He commercialised it! His local knowledge gave him the ability to present this sort of hedonism in the right tone. He painted scenes of officers and soldiers relaxing and enjoying their time off duty, which meant gambling, drinking and whoring, some things that Codde undoubtedly knew a thing or two about. But with Codde’s talent, these scenes came across mostly jolly and absolutely idealised. The paintings were mainly small in size, relatively inexpensive and proved very popular, often geared toward the taste of young bourgeois men wishing to impress their comrades with military spectacles.
Although it may not seem like it today, but to the bourgeois man, sitting in his home in Amsterdam in the 17th century, these guardroom scenes offered a glimpse of controlled theatre, devoid of violence while indulging the fantasy of a mercenary’s life. Many other artists within Codde’s circle painted guardroom scenes, but Codde was the originator, spotting a desire for a little bit of fantasy in middle class lives and turning it into a successful business. Guardroom scenes also offered a snapshot of life in Amsterdam. and who better to present these snapshots to the world than an ‘echte Amsterdammer’?
21 September 2022