4 ms·

That museum really is a treasure, and well worth a visit if you're ever in wonderful Amsterdam. Not right now I guess what with the crowds and everything, but h

by unwind 6y ago

That museum really is a treasure, and well worth a visit if you're ever in wonderful Amsterdam. Not right now I guess what with the crowds and everything, but hopefully this too shall pass. I think it's really funny that the always-pedalling Dutch included a bike lane through the museum [1], that feels very right and also quite unique. [1] https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/the-bicycle-passage-of-the-amsterdam-rijksmuseum/ https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/the-bicycle-pa...

yread 6y ago
The whole reconstruction of the museum was very nicely done with huge windows letting in plenty of light. It did cost 400 million euros though
- dajonker 6y ago
  It also took ten years during which the museum was closed. The original building took about eight years to build.
  - gpvos 6y ago
    And they originally wanted to close the bicycle path that everyone here is so lyrical about; it took a lot of activism by locals to save it.
trm42 6y ago
Also, for some reason this art piece looks better live than on paper or on screen. It may have something to do with its size and how eye handles it live.
- ethanbond 6y ago
  In my experience, the gap between the original and any sort of reproduction grows as the craftsmanship goes up. For most artists who are known as great masters (such as Rembrandt), it really does only take seeing a few in person to be like, “yep, s/he is clearly among the best.”
- ghaff 6y ago
  There is an impact of very large paintings that you definitely lose in a photograph. It's not that such paintings are only good because they're big. But viewing a painting that fills a wall is just a different experience from looking at even a much smaller version of the same scene. This is probably especially true with large figure groupings like The Night Watch.
  - lisper 6y ago
    The visceral sensation of seeing something big can only be produced by a live viewing: think of seeing the grand canyon live vs seeing a photo of it, even a very high quality one.
    - jcl 6y ago
      Surprisingly, your visual perception of something can actually be affected by how big you think its image is, even if it is not live. The "vertical-horizontal illusion" is an optical illusion where a vertical line appears to be longer than a horizontal line of the same length. It turns out that this illusion is more pronounced in larger images, even if the image has the same content. In fact, some researchers used monocular VR to show that your perception of horizontal vs. vertical scale can be altered just by making you believe that the image you are viewing is scaled to a TV vs. a movie theater screen -- even when you are constrained to view exactly the same pixels in both cases. I have a pet theory that this may be why film stars thought that TV cameras "added ten pounds"... Viewing a face at smaller-than-life size could make you perceive it as a little more squat than it really is. (I learned this from a talk by Dennis Proffitt... might be from this paywalled article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/p3053 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/p3053 ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical%E2%80%93horizontal_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical%E2%80%93horizontal_il...
- Groxx 6y ago
  this is probably a good detail in favor of VR museums :)
magicalhippo 6y ago
> That museum really is a treasure, and well worth a visit if you're ever in wonderful Amsterdam. Absolutely. I'm not hugely into paintings as such. But when I visited the Rijksmuseum, the sheer craftsmanship displayed by so many of the paintings just blew my mind. Photographs does not do the paintings justice. Even this one. The 3d nature of the paintings and the complex way the structure and paint interacts with the light cannot be reproduced by a photograph. To view them is an experience, and is well worth the visit.
joelbluminator 6y ago
Hmm what crowds...? I think Amsterdam is as empty as any other major city in the West
- shusson 6y ago
  Until the sun comes out, then everyone is picnicking on the grass. Especially in the park right outside the rijksmuseum.
  - joelbluminator 6y ago
    Those are probably not tourists. Are the main canal streets packed? the coffee shops? the restaurants? the city gets 20 million tourists a year on a normal year. This isnt gonna happen on 2020.
andrewflnr 6y ago
That bicycle path is delightfully surreal, and I'm slightly happier knowing it exists.

by unwind 6y ago

yread 6y ago

The whole reconstruction of the museum was very nicely done with huge windows letting in plenty of light. It did cost 400 million euros though

dajonker 6y ago
It also took ten years during which the museum was closed. The original building took about eight years to build.
- gpvos 6y ago
  And they originally wanted to close the bicycle path that everyone here is so lyrical about; it took a lot of activism by locals to save it.

trm42 6y ago

Also, for some reason this art piece looks better live than on paper or on screen. It may have something to do with its size and how eye handles it live.

ethanbond 6y ago
In my experience, the gap between the original and any sort of reproduction grows as the craftsmanship goes up. For most artists who are known as great masters (such as Rembrandt), it really does only take seeing a few in person to be like, “yep, s/he is clearly among the best.”
ghaff 6y ago
There is an impact of very large paintings that you definitely lose in a photograph. It's not that such paintings are only good because they're big. But viewing a painting that fills a wall is just a different experience from looking at even a much smaller version of the same scene. This is probably especially true with large figure groupings like The Night Watch.
- lisper 6y ago
  The visceral sensation of seeing something big can only be produced by a live viewing: think of seeing the grand canyon live vs seeing a photo of it, even a very high quality one.
  - jcl 6y ago
    Surprisingly, your visual perception of something can actually be affected by how big you think its image is, even if it is not live. The "vertical-horizontal illusion" is an optical illusion where a vertical line appears to be longer than a horizontal line of the same length. It turns out that this illusion is more pronounced in larger images, even if the image has the same content. In fact, some researchers used monocular VR to show that your perception of horizontal vs. vertical scale can be altered just by making you believe that the image you are viewing is scaled to a TV vs. a movie theater screen -- even when you are constrained to view exactly the same pixels in both cases. I have a pet theory that this may be why film stars thought that TV cameras "added ten pounds"... Viewing a face at smaller-than-life size could make you perceive it as a little more squat than it really is. (I learned this from a talk by Dennis Proffitt... might be from this paywalled article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/p3053 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/p3053 ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical%E2%80%93horizontal_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical%E2%80%93horizontal_il...
Groxx 6y ago
this is probably a good detail in favor of VR museums :)

magicalhippo 6y ago

> That museum really is a treasure, and well worth a visit if you're ever in wonderful Amsterdam. Absolutely. I'm not hugely into paintings as such. But when I visited the Rijksmuseum, the sheer craftsmanship displayed by so many of the paintings just blew my mind. Photographs does not do the paintings justice. Even this one. The 3d nature of the paintings and the complex way the structure and paint interacts with the light cannot be reproduced by a photograph. To view them is an experience, and is well worth the visit.

joelbluminator 6y ago

Hmm what crowds...? I think Amsterdam is as empty as any other major city in the West

shusson 6y ago
Until the sun comes out, then everyone is picnicking on the grass. Especially in the park right outside the rijksmuseum.
- joelbluminator 6y ago
  Those are probably not tourists. Are the main canal streets packed? the coffee shops? the restaurants? the city gets 20 million tourists a year on a normal year. This isnt gonna happen on 2020.

andrewflnr 6y ago

That bicycle path is delightfully surreal, and I'm slightly happier knowing it exists.