Amalia of Solms-Braunfels
Countess Amalie of Solms- Braunfels ( born August 31, 1602 Schloss Braunfels in Braunfels, † September 8, 1675 in The Hague) was maid of honor of Countess Palatine Electress - Elizabeth of the Palatinate. It was in 1625 by marriage to the Dutch governor Frederick Henry of Orange Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau.
Life
Amalie was the fourth daughter of Count Johann Albrecht I of Solms- Braunfels (1563-1623) and his first wife Countess Agnes zu Sayn -Wittgenstein (1569-1617), daughter of Count Ludwig I and Countess Elisabeth zu Solms - Laubach. Your paternal grandparents were Conrad Graf zu Solms - Braunfels and Countess Elisabeth of Nassau- Dillenburg.
In the summer of 1619 came Countess Amalie at the Heidelberger Hof and became the maid of honor the Countess Palatine Electress - Palatine and later Winter Queen, Elizabeth Stuart, appointed. After their escape from Prague Countess Amalie came with the royal family in the spring of 1621 to The Hague. Later learned Amalie of Solms- Braunfels at a ball in honor of the Winter Queen Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, a cousin of her father know.
On April 4, 1625 married Countess Amalie in The Hague Prince Frederick Henry ( 1584-1647 ), youngest son of Governor William I of Orange and his fourth wife of the French Huguenot Louise de Coligny. From the joint connecting nine children were born:
- Wilhelm II (1626-1650)
- Louise Henriette (1627-1667) ∞ 1646 Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg
- Henriette Amalia (* / † 1628)
- Elisabeth ( * / † 1630)
- Isabelle Charlotte (1632-1642)
- Albertine Agnes (1634-1696) ∞ Graf Wilhelm Friedrich von Nassau- Dietz (1613-1664), governor of Friesland, Groningen
- Henrietta Catharina (1637-1708) ∞ 1659 Prince Johann Georg II of Anhalt- Dessau ( 1627-1693 )
- Friedrich Heinrich ( * / † 1639 )
- Marie Henrietta (1642-1688) ∞ 1666 Count Palatine Ludwig Heinrich of simmering ( 1640-1674 ), grandson of Frederick IV
Passionate and domineering, but politically highly gifted, equipped Princess Amalie of Orange from the court in The Hague with royal splendor and crafted it into a European Centre for the Arts. They also determined the politics of marriage for their children, Prince William II and his four sisters whose inclinations had to be left behind. As a widow, she drove a directed against the Son of policy. After his early death they fought for the production of lost rights to her grandson William III. His chairmanship of the Council of State and his appointment as captain general and hereditary governor in 1672 were the culmination of all their troubles.
Art jobs
Amalie of Solms had met an art quasi- royal blank at the Heidelberg court and sat her life exquisite art orders to display their rank one. Special attention she gave it to the respective changes of the Paris court art, which they transposed consecutively in different palaces and castles in their apartments.
The governor couple took from 1625 his main residence on the Binnenhof in The Hague, which had been extended by builders from Paris to a new wing, and was again enlarged in 1632 by a short wings.
Already in 1621 was about 10 km southwest of The Hague has begun with the construction of the ( no longer extant today ) country mansion Huis Honselaarsdijk, was built at the and 1647. The plant association in a strict symmetry of a three- leaf diagram of the core lock with a long-reaching garden. In architecture, suggestions had been processed from the published mainly in the 1570s publications of the French architect Jacques I. Androuët you Cerceau in which the most famous castles in France were studying.
1633 - 1636 was also the castle and the garden of Huis ter Nieuwburg in Rijswijk, also in the immediate area of The Hague.
1645 has started in the north- east of The Hague with the pleasure palace Huis ten Bosch, the configured Amalie after the death of her Gattens 1647 to a mausoleum and Gedenkbau. A key example was the 1615-1620 of Maria de ' Medici, built the Palais du Luxembourg with its extensive, the building owner glorifying painting equipment here.
In all these buildings there Amalia was mainly involved with the interior design. Here the idea of the unified and concentrated by a dominant color scheme spatial enhancement was implemented according to the latest, by Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet and her salon represented Parisian fashion. Also new were the embossed and gold background colorfully painted leather hangings. In the 1630s, these wall decorations were complemented by a more courtly fashion of the wall design. Now rooms were divided by floor to ceiling wood panels in fields, were admitted into the painting with colored grotesque, landscape views or seascapes.
Was also taken from Paris, the type of bed in an alcove, the alcove, with an upstream balustrade. In this way, both social distance could be made be made available by the lady of the house as a sign of special appreciation as well as the intimate space of the alcove. Around 1640 the bed with balustrade was introduced in the Binnenhof. In 1641 it received a new balustrade with East Asian lacquer work.
The Netherlands was then the main trading for imports from East Asia. Particularly appreciated were porcelain goods from China. Amalie began, such as porcelains to focus prestigious collection objects in special rooms. Initially arranged in kind in the form of a Wunst and curiosities, arose in 1634 in the Binnenhof gallery, dominated in the porcelain vessels. The (lost ) space is one of the first example of chinoise interior design concepts dar. ever
Another, imported from East Asia technique was the lacquer painting. In the 1660s Amalie could be prepared the wall covering a cabinet in Huis ten Bosch from lacquer boxes. In the following period, the new spatial types of porcelain and lacquer cabinet cabinet should spread as manifestations of China enthusiasm and prestigious architecture throughout Europe.