Civic Guard Research Articles

CIVIC GUARDS AS AN EXAMPLE OF USING SOCIAL POTENTIAL IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. EXPERIENCES, LEGAL SOLUTIONS, OPPORTUNITIES

In this article, the authors explore the issue of civic guards, i.e. volunteer and sometimes sponta-neously organized groups of residents of auxiliary character in ensuring public safety. Based on historical experience, the authors present selected instances of the use of such guards, as well as discuss Poland’s legal solutions in this regard. In the following part of the article, the possibili-ties of using civic guards in ensuring public order, including in patrolling activities and protec-tion of various types of objects, as well as the dangers arising from possible abuses in the use of powers by members of the civic guards are presented.

‘The Wise Let the Sword Rest, but not Rust’: Celebrating an Armed Peace on a Civic Guard Portrait

Amsterdam civic guards are posing as armed keepers of peace and order on Govert Flinck’s Company of Captain Joan Huydecoper and Lieutenant Frans Oetgens van Waveren from 1648-50. That peace and order was deeply rooted in self-interest and conceived by them as a prerequisite for the arts. This deliberate portrayal of the men as peacekeepers actively silences the fact that they also participated in trade wars and colonial activities and/or profited of them, either directly or indirectly. In depicting these men in this way Flinck addressed to their needs as well as his own. The painting proved a very important step in the course of his successful career. Flinck – and other artists from the 17th century – played their part in immortalizing the 17th century in Amsterdam as a peaceful and prosperous ‘golden age’. The stories of war and conflict meanwhile were at the same time effectively silenced by the same people that profited of them.

Some notes by Ernst Brinck (1582-1649) on painters, collectors and exceptional art

This article focuses on the Harderwijk regent Ernst Brinck (1582-1649) who owned an extensive cabinet of curiosities and a library full of valuable books. His exceptionally wide range of interests is also evident from surviving notebooks of his in the Harderwijk archives. The entries they contain show that Brinck visited other collectors and viewed their cabinets. It goes without saying that interesting information was exchanged during these encounters, which Brinck noted in his booklets. It can be found scattered there among all kinds of other topics. Around 1645, Brinck classified some of these notes under the heading ‘De picturis eximiis, et [rebus] quae concernunt picturas’ (Of exceptional paintings and [all manner of things] that concern the art of painting) and ‘Van eenige treflicke Conststucken’ (Of several excellent works of art). Twenty-two previously unpublished anecdotal statements can be found in these categories. Examples include the average cost of the civic guard portraits in the Great Hall of the Arquebusiers Company (Doelenzaal) in Amsterdam (no. 6); the wealthy collector Pieter Spiering and his art books (no. 12): the obscene paintings of Torrentius (no. 7); Rubens’ earnings for the cycle of paintings on the life of Marie de’ Medici, queen of France, in Paris (no. 8); the Brazilian paintings commissioned by John Maurice of Nassau and painted by Jacob van Campen, which Brinck saw at the artist’s estate near Amersfoort (no. 5); and the wooden prayer nut, now in the Abegg-Stiftung, Switzerland (no. 19). In one of the booklets, hidden among other notes, Brinck penned an entry on Rembrandt’s Hundred guilder print that would have fitted very well in his list on exceptional art, but is absent there. Brinck wrote that Rembrandt had sold a print with the subject ‘Let the children come to me’ (Matthew 19: 13-15) for a hundred guilders. The note establishes that Rembrandt himself sold the print for that amount, in 1648 or 1649.

Lengtegroei, lotelingen en Limburg. Doorgroei van Limburgse plattelandsjongens in Eijsden en Arcen-Velden, 1863-1898

Abstract Height is often used as a proxy for the living standards of historical populations. In this framework, Limburg is the odd one out within the Dutch context. From being among the ‘tallest’ provinces in the middle of the nineteenth century, Limburg was amongst the shortest around the turn of the century. This makes it an excellent case to study catch-up growth for historical populations. The lower living standards of the nineteenth century did not only result in a shorter stature, they also lowered growth velocity. For Dutch cities an average catch-up growth of over five centimeters was not uncommon. Using conscription records and registers of the civic guards, this article will examine catch-up growth for the province of Limburg. However, since previous studies mainly focused on urban areas, we will focus on the rural municipalities of Eijsden and Arcen en Velden. We show that these municipalities display a lower average amount of catch-up growth of under two centimeters. Furthermore, social differences within these villages were smaller compared with the rest of the Netherlands. Moreover, the Netherlands were able to catch up between age 20 and 25 when it came to height. Near the end of the research period, catch-up growth decreased in the Dutch cities, but in turn increased on the Limburgian countryside.

Vaške straže na območju južne Notranjske, 1942-1943

The paper presents civic guards in southern Notranjska region, in the area of three present-day municipalities: Bloke, Cerknica and Lož Valley. Among the materials that helped us prepare the paper, the minutes of the interrogations of civic guards at local military courts in Kočevje and Ribnica have special significance, as they offer us an insight into the formation and operation of civic guards and reasons for enlisting with them.

Historical Imagination in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Casa Guidi Windows

Revolutions are hardly ever realized in single moments, single years, or discrete turning points. Instead, they unfold over time. Elizabeth Barrett Browning stresses this historical reality in letters and poems she wrote about Risorgimento Florence during the late 1840s. In a letter to Mary Russell Milford dated 30 April 1849, Barrett Browning glosses the events of 1849 as revolutions. This perhaps surprising claim was provoked in part by her appraisal of Grand Duke Leopold II, whose duplicitous allegiances to Tuscans and Austrians had long been suspected. By the spring of 1849, they were undeniable. Yet her frustrations aren't limited to him alone. My faith in every species of Italian is however nearly tired Barrett Browning confesses: don't believe they are men at all, much less heroes & patriots. Since I wrote last to you, I think we have had two revolutions here at Florence--Grand Duke out, Grand Duke in--The bells in the church opposite rang for both--They first planted a tree of liberty close to our door, and then they pulled it down. (1) Famous for her rallying cries on behalf of the Risorgimento, Barrett Browning in fact understood mid-century Florence through a series of uncertainties: not one but two revolutionary springs, not only the planting but also the uprooting of new life. (2) For Barrett Browning, 1849 brought the uncertainties of 1847 and 1848 into even sharper focus. Barrett Browning's 1851 diptych Casa Guidi Windows similarly dramatizes two revolutions: it dilates on the immediate aftermath of two events that read, at least at first, as inverses of one another. (3) Part one is inspired by 12 September 1847, when Leopold II promised to support the Florentine civic guard, despite his personal and political allegiances to Austria. Part two is inspired by 2 May 1849, when the Austrian army occupied Florence after Leopold II fled the city, renewed allegiances with Pope Pius IX and Emperor Franz Joseph I, and then returned. The Grand Duke's militarized re-entry confirmed his duplicity and marked the fall of the provisional Tuscan republic. (4) For Barrett Browning, the Florentine civic guard and the Austrian army embody two distinct historical possibilities. Indeed, as she chronicles her own wavering faith in Tuscan independence across Casa Guidi Windows, she returns, again and again, to the complex civic and political allegiances of two non-Italian figureheads: Pope Pius IX and Grand Duke Leopold II. While Pius IX was and is still notorious for renouncing his commitment to mid-century revolutions (Margaret Fuller famously excoriates him for reversing his implicit support of Roman revolutionaries between 1848 and 1849 in The New-York Daily Tribune), Grand Duke Leopold II will be my primary subject in this essay. Leopold II appears as an important counterpart to Barrett Browning's speaker throughout the poem. As I'll demonstrate, she compares her ambivalence to his at crucial moments, identifying with him in ways that reveal her historical imagination. By historical imagination, I mean not only how she blurs personal and political identifications with the Austro-Florentine Duke but also how she superimposes past- and present-tense expressions of patriotic sentiment, as she does in her 1849 letter to Mitford, through her reflections on him. By stressing Barrett Browning's representations of Leopold II across the 1847 and 1849 revolutions, I'll read this poem as a self-conscious meditation on historiography, one that presents seemingly recursive moments non-linearly and sometimes non-sequentially. Barrett Browning imagines poetic authority, I argue, as necessarily mutable and as an alternative to the Grand Duke's push-and-pull, give-and-take power and the civic disillusionment that it incites by the midpoint of the poem. Early critics of Casa Guidi Windows read Barrett Browning's diptych structure as evidence of her patriotic naivete: she doesn't revise part one (written in 1847) to anticipate part two (written in 1849). …

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Pieces within and outside the New Rijksmuseum Part 5: Govert Flinck

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Pieces within and outside the New Rijksmuseum Part 5: Govert Flinck

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Pieces within and outside the New Rijksmuseum Pt. 4

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Pieces within and outside the New Rijksmuseum Pt. 4

Gărzile civice şi societățile de tir din Banat între anii 1717 – 1919 / Civic Guards and Shooting Societies in Banat between the Years 1717 and 1919

Gărzile civice şi societățile de tir din Banat între anii 1717 – 1919 / Civic Guards and Shooting Societies in Banat between the Years 1717 and 1919

Changes to a Civic Guard Portrait

The Rijksmuseum Bulletin is the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal presenting scholarly articles that contribute to historical and art-historical research into the Rijksmuseum collections to an international audience of curators, scholars, students, art professionals and enthusiasts.

The Paintings in the Three Civic Guard Halls in Amsterdam, Written by G. Schaep, 1653

The Paintings in the Three Civic Guard Halls in Amsterdam, Written by G. Schaep, 1653

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum, Pt. I

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum, Pt. I

Introduction to D. C. Meijer Jr., “The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum."

Introduction to D. C. Meijer Jr., “The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum."

The Paintings in the Three Civic Guard Halls in Amsterdam, Written by G. Schaep, 1653

The Paintings in the Three Civic Guard Halls in Amsterdam, Written by G. Schaep, 1653

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and Outside the New Rijksmuseum, Pt. II

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and Outside the New Rijksmuseum, Pt. II

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum

The Amsterdam Civic Guard Portraits within and outside the New Rijksmuseum

Short Contribution: Een nieuwe interpretatie van een Amsterdams stadsgezicht van Jacob van Ruisdael

Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682), the well-known landscape painter, produced some cityscapes as well. In those days he lived on the south side of Dam-square in Amsterdam. From his window he could see a part of that square and the Damrak. In this article the author proves, using history and observing the civic guard procession together with the colours of their flag, that his Mauritshuis-cityscape (View on the Dam square, fig. I), now in the Amsterdam Museum, is not just a cityscape, it´s much more. The day Ruisdael chose for his subject matter, August 15th 1672, was an important day in local history. Romeyn de Hooghe too, chose that very day for an etching (The Atlas van Stolk Collection, Rotterdam, fig.5). Concluding, Ruisdael´s painting has a special, historical subject : Amsterdam has chosen in favour of the prince of Orange.

The White Terror in Hungary, 1919–1921: The Social Worlds of Paramilitary Groups

The Hungarian Republic, which emerged from of the ashes of Austria-Hungary, experienced two revolutions between October 1918 and April 1919. However, neither the democratic regime nor the more radical Soviet Republic born in these revolutions was able to solve the country's most pressing economic and social problems. The collapse of the Soviet Republic at the end of July 1919, in turn, was followed by a rapid rise in extra-legal violence. Freikorps units (szabadcsapatok) and civic guards (polgárőrségek), aided by the members of the local police, set up kangaroo courts, organized summary executions, and ignited pogroms in the central and western parts of the country.

Public faces and private identities in seventeenth-century Holland: portraiture and the production of community

1. The cultural power of portraits: the market, interpersonal experience, and subjectivity 2. Portraits of individuals: physiognomy, demeanor, and the representation of character 3. Family portraits: the private arena and the social order 4. The history portrait: comprehending self through historical narrative 5. Civic guard portraits: personal friendships and the public sphere 6. Portraits and the production of identity: transitional objects and potential spaces.

The “Marlboro Men” of the Early Seventeenth Century

In the course of the early seventeenth century, smoking tobacco changed from being a vice of social outcasts to a common pastime enjoyed in all echelons of Dutch society. Among the first to experiment with tobacco were male youths. This article questions why young men started using tobacco and explores possible “smoking” role models that might have influenced them to take up smoking. The most likely candidates were soldiers and civic guards, who, in general, were considered macho men. Besides being heroes on the battlefield and protectors of cities, these models of manhood were renowned to youngsters for their drinking, womanizing, and smoking. In the eyes of male youths, these activities were important liminal rites that demarcated boyhood from manhood.