Tromp hall bench
There is no arguing about taste: some find this hall bench beautiful, others think it’s really ugly. It was made during what art experts in the Netherlands have called the ‘ugly period’ since an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in 1995. The period in question was from about 1835 to 1895, when all kinds of styles from the past were mashed up and reused.
The bench has neo-classical and neo-Renaissance parts with a seascape that imitates the style of the 17th century and a portrait that is a copy of a 19th-century original in the Rijksmuseum. The bench itself dates from the early 20th century. The latest restoration even added a 21st-century element: the flag at the top right had disappeared and has now been recreated.
Fun fact
The hall bench is an invented tradition creation: something new that draws on centuries-old traditions. The bench tells the story that the person depicted, Admiral Cornelis Tromp, was given the bench as a gift for part in the victory at the Battle of Öland in June 1676. Tromp led a combined Dano-Dutch fleet against the Swedish navy to gain control of access to the southern Baltic Sea as well as control of the toll levied for passage through the Sound (Sound Toll). Dutch merchants earned great wealth from the Baltic trade in grain, timber, wool and furs. However, by the time the bench was made, Cornelis Tromp had been lying in the Tromp family crypt in Delft for two centuries.