The Sword and the Album

Material Memories and an Eighteenth-Century Poetic Account of the Execution of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1619)

Authors

  • Lieke van Deinsen
  • Jan de Hond

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52476/trb.9756

Abstract

In 1878 the Rijksmuseum acquired two objects related to the violent death of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt: the executioner’s sword allegedly used to behead the Land’s Advocate and an eighteenth-century album of poems about the weapon of execution. The article describes how these objects have functioned in the Oldenbarnevelt memory culture and shows how they have taken on new functions and meanings over the centuries – from a possible executioner’s weapon, to a republican and then national relic, to an objet de mémoire.

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Author Biographies

Lieke van Deinsen

Lieke van Deinsen is a postdoctoral researcher at Leuven University (art history) and VU University Amsterdam (cultural history).

Jan de Hond

Jan de Hond is a curator of history at the Rijksmuseum and one of the editors of The Rijksmuseum Bulletin.

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Published

2018-09-15

How to Cite

van Deinsen, Lieke, and Jan de Hond. 2018. “The Sword and the Album: Material Memories and an Eighteenth-Century Poetic Account of the Execution of Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt (1619)”. The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 66 (3):204-33. https://doi.org/10.52476/trb.9756.

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Section

Articles