Matters Matter, Material Culture of Dutch Sephardim ( 1600-1750)

Studia RosenthalianaVOLUME 44 (2012)

Mapping Jewish Amsterdam:The Early Modern Perspective

Dedicated to Yosef Kaplan on theOccasion of his Retirement

EDITED BY

SHLOMO BERGER, EMILE SCHRIJVER,IRENE ZWIEP

PEETERSLEUVEN — PARIS — WALPOLE, MA

2012

Contents

SHLOMO BERGER, EMILE SCHRIJVER & IRENE ZWIEP (Univer- sity of Amsterdam). ‘In Honor of Yosef Kaplan’ . . . . . V

AVRIEL BAR-LEVAV (Open University of Israel, Ra’anana). ‘The Religious Order of Jewish Books: Structuring Hebrew

Knowledge in Amsterdam’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

ISRAEL BARTAL (Hebrew University, Jerusalem). ‘“…But in Poland You Would Not Have Been Worthy of Being Even the Rabbi of the Tailors”: R. Eleazar of Amsterdam, the Tailor’s

Society of Brody and the Hasidic Tale’ . . . . . . . . . . 29

RICHARD I. COHEN (Hebrew University, Jerusalem). ‘Author-ity and Its Discontent in 17th-Century Amsterdam Jewry:

Fin-de-Siècle Interpretations’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

THEODOR DUNKELGRÜN (University of Cambridge). ‘Like a Blind Man Judging Colors: Joseph Athias and Johannes

Leusden defend their 1667 Hebrew Bible’ . . . . . . . . . 79

BENJAMIN FISHER (Towson University). ‘Opening the Eyes of the Novos Reformados: Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira, Radical

Christianity, and the Jewish Reclamation of Jesus, 1620-1660’ 117

MATT GOLDISH (Ohio State University). ‘Hakham Jacob Sas- portas and the Former Conversos’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

JONATHAN ISRAEL (Princeton University). ‘Dutch Jews, David Nassy, and the “General Revolution” in the Carribean (1770-

1800)’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

TIRTSAH LEVIE BERNFELD (Amsterdam). ‘Matters Matter: Mate- rial Culture of Dutch Sephardim (1600-1750)’ . . . . . . . 191

ADRI K. OFFENBERG (Amsterdam). ‘The First Jewish Poem in Praise of the City of Amsterdam by David Jesurun, “El

Poeta Niño”’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

DAVID RUDERMAN (University of Pennsylvania). ‘The Hague Dialogues’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

EDWIN SEROUSSI (Hebrew University, Jerusalem). ‘The Odys- sey of Bendigamos: Stranger than Ever’ . . . . . . . . . . 241

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

IV CONTENTS

STUDIA ROSENTHALIANA 44 (2012), 191-216 doi: 10.2143/SR.44.0.2189616

Matters Matter: Material Culture ofDutch Sephardim (1600-1750)*

TIRTSAH LEVIE BERNFELD

E NTERING, IN 1704, the hall and galleries, the public space of Rachel Suasso de Pinto’ s residence in The Hague, one would be surprised to be welcomed by two sets of portraits of the King and Queen of Spain.1 In another part of the house, the garden room, more portraits of Span-iards would follow.2 The Suasso family had strong ties with the Spanish Crown, indeed. Since her former husband Antonio (1614-1685) born and bred in France as a child of immigrants from Portugal3, had settled down in Amsterdam and joined the Portuguese Jewish community as Isaac Israel Suasso, he had helped Spain as a merchant-banker in its war effort against the French in 1673. For this service he was granted the title of ‘Factor of His (Spanish) Majesty in Amsterdam’ by the governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands. Moreover in 1676 he was elevated by the

* I would like to thank Prof Dr C.W. Fock, emeritus Professor in the History of Decorative Arts at Leiden University, The Netherlands, for a critical reading of an earlier version of the present article and providing me with valuable suggestions.

1. For the importance of representation and the reception of guests in the so-called ‘voorhuis’ and ‘gallerijen’ see J. Loughman and J.M. Montias, Public and Private Spaces. Works of Art in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Houses (Zwolle 2000), p. 30-31. For the function and development of the different rooms in a house, see Th. Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen: Ontwikkelingen in de woon- en leefcultuur binnen Hollandse steden van de zestiende tot de negentiende eeuw’, in P. te Boekhorst, P. Burke and W. Frijhoff, Cultuur en Maatschappij in Nederland 1500-1850. Een historisch-antropologisch perspectief (Meppel 1992), p. 91-95.

2. For the political portraits in Rachel Suasso de Pinto’s mansion see her inventory: Munici-pal Archives The Hague (henceforth HGA) entry no. 0372-01, no. 752, Not. S. Favon, 25 March 1704, p. 144v, 146, 146v; the portraits in the garden room depict the Count of Monterey andDon Pedro Doreitia. The Count of Monterey used to be the governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands (D.M. Schwetschinki, The Lopes Suasso Family, bankers of William III [Amsterdam 1988], p. 35).

3. Ibid., p. 17-25.

192 TIRTSAH LEVIE BERNFELD

Spanish king Carlos II into the rank of hereditary nobility. Besides, the Spanish king enabled him to buy the barony of Avernas-le-Gras in the Spanish Netherlands4, a major honor seen in the light of Suasso’s capacity as a Jew, originating from a family that had fled the Iberian peninsula as Conversos and had raised the suspicion of the Spanish Inquisition because of Judaizing practices.5 At the same time Antonio or Isaac supported the Dutch House of Orange: in 1682 he lent money to stadtholder Wil-liam III of Orange.6

Despite all these paradoxes, the presence of portraits of Spanish celebrities in Suasso’s house can be understood in framework of his work for the Spanish Crown. There were more objects in Suasso’s mansion that underscored the strong connection of Portuguese Jews in the Dutch Republic with their countries of origin: Rachel slept in a ‘display’ bed or ‘ledikant’. It was apparently produced in Portugal and an expensive item, often spotted among the well-to-do Dutch Sephardim, but seldom found at home with the Dutch, except for some aristocratic circles like those of the House of Orange.7 Also, the presence of silver objects from Spanish origin next to those produced in Germany and the Low Coun-tries hints at a an intimate relation of the Suasso family with the Iberian peninsula.8 Besides, the series of tapestries decorating Suasso’s walls not only displayed the family’s aristocratic pretensions (and those of many

4. Ibid., p. 35-37. 5. Ibid., p. 17-25. 6. Ibid., p. 39-40. 7. HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 752, Not. S. Favon, 25 March 1704, p. 147v: ‘Op de slaapkamer

boven de keuken…van overledene, het houtwerck van een Ledicant van Portugal met koper versiert’… [p. 144]…Opde solder: het Houtwerck van een Ledicant van portugal met koperwerck versiert’; for a Portuguese display bed found in the inventories of the House of Orange see S.W.A. Drossaers and Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen van de boedels in de verblijven van de Oranjes en daarmede gelijk te stellen stukken 1567-1795, vol. 1: Inventarissen Nassau-Oranje 1567-1712 (The Hague 1974), p. 271, no. 936: ‘Het groote Portugaels vergult ledecant’. For the status of a display bed or ‘ledikant’, see Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 96-97. Also Willemijn Fock stresses the importance of a ‘ledikant’ in the higher classes of the Dutch Republic (C.W. Fock, ‘1600-1650’, in C.W. Fock (ed.), Het Nederlandse interieur in beeld 1600-1900 (Zwolle 2010), p. 23, 40 and pictures there p. 48 no. 14 and p. 61 no. 30; eadem, ‘1650-1700’, p. 92, 105). For display beds among the well-to-do elsewhere in Europe see the example of Brussels in V. De Laet, Brussel Binnenskamers. Kunst- en luxebezit in het spanningsveld tussen hof en stad, 1600-1735 (Amsterdam 2011), p. 115.

8. Inventory Rachel Suasso de Pinto (HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 752, Not. S. Favon, 25 March 1704, p. 141v-42v: ‘volgt Spaansche en ander onbekent silver…Hooghduijsch silver…mon-terende t voorn. Silver soo nieuwe keur als spaansch hooghduijsch en ander onbekent silver’); see also Th. Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Magistraten, Edelen en Buurtverenigingen (de 17e Eeuw)’ in eadem (ed.), Het Lange Voorhout. Monumenten, Mensen en Macht (Den Haag 1998), p. 90.

MATTERS MATTER: MATERIAL CULTURE OF DUTCH SEPHARDIM 193

others) as tapestries were part and parcel of the international court culture and became fashionable, also among wealthier burgher classes.9 Jewish identity was at stake here as well: histories of Salomon and Sam-son were chosen as themes. These tapestries got a prominent place in Suasso’s mansion in The Hague and in their country estate, about 5 kilometers away, near Voorburg.10

Many Dutch Sephardim like the Suasso’s owned objects stemming from various cultures. It indicates Dutch Sephardim were part and parcel of a ‘patchwork culture’ as Daniel Swetschinski appropriately defined it.11 The multifaceted identity of Dutch Sephardim included characteristics taken from the Iberian and Catholic world. Then, one could find marks of their being integrated citizens, at home and in the international arena. Up north all these (southern) European traits were mixed with concepts they absorbed in their capacity as Jews. Moreover, they took in Dutch and other cultures on their way. This multi-mixed culture can be observed in the way Dutch Sephardim thought, acted and built up their community.

Objects are not only meant and used as commodities; they could also help to raise status. Some objects as much as intellectual baggage, could define the cultural-, class- and ethnic identity of the individual

9. For tapestries as part and parcel of the international court culture see Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Magistraten’, p. 83-86; eadem, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 100; see further C.W. Fock, ‘“Kleet den wandt van ’t graft pallais in tapijt: ontzie geen kosten”. Tapijten in het burgerinterieur ten tijde van de Republiek’, Textielhistorische bijdragen 37 (1997), p. 41-76; eadem, ‘1600-1650’, p. 36 and eadem, ‘1650-1700’, p. 101; for tapestries in the mansions of the House of Orange see Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen, p. 269 no. 875: ‘seven groote stucken tapitserie,…all van root Indiaens damast’; ibid., p. 565 no. 161: ‘een out tapijt voor ’t bedde sijnde de vonnisse Salomons’.

10. For Suasso’s tapestries see HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 752, Not. S. Favon, 25 March 1704, p. 147v: ‘In de Eetsael het behangsel van Tapijt bestaande in vijf stucke en twee deurstucke sijnde de historie van de Coningh Salomon’; ibid., p. 149v: ‘op den huijse ofte wooninge van Suij-dervliet buijten voorburgh…Een kamerbehangsel van vijff stucken out Tapijt sijnde de historie van Samson’; for tapestries in other Dutch Sephardi homes (themes were not explicitly mentioned) see e.g. those of Mirjam Alvares (SAA entry no. 334, no. 628: ‘Papeis tocantes a caza mortuoria de Miriam Alvarez que Ds tem. Miriam Alvarez, No 4’, including her last will written and signed by Miriam Alvares, 28 October 1678; handed over to Not. F. Tixerandet on 21 November 1678; opened by Not. D. van der Groe 29 Aug. 1685): ‘deixo aminha sobrinha…Sara Alvares quatro panos de Tapeseria com todos os meves da Sala de pronco’); those of Eliseba de Pinto Suasso (HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 2083, Not. J. Sijthoff, 10 May 1747: ‘in het groote zalet…een Behangsel van Tapijt…In de Voorkamer…een Tapijte Behangsel’); that of Dona Silva, widow of Duarte da Silva (HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 1009, Not. S. Favon, 1691, p. 112: ‘in de groote beneden achtersael…een kostelijck kamer tapijtbehangsel’); biblical themes in tapestries appeared in non-Jewish homes as well: Fock, ‘“Kleet den wandt”’, p. 50-52.

11. D.M. Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam (London 2000), ch. 6.


and the group. People depend upon certain objects to affirm their iden-tity. Objects also contribute to define boundaries with which individuals and the group distinguish themselves from the other in territorial respect or in that of religion, ethnicity or life style. The house and its interior show us the interrelationship between the individual, his social network and the outside world. They are part of a façade area, in which the individual performs his play, trying to impress his environment and win everyone’s respect.12 Objects play a role in this performance of life as a theater, with front-stage performance meant to show off to the outside world and the backstage for more intimacy and relaxation.13 Objects tell a story: they not only express the personal biography of the owner, but also his/her way of life, behavior, social status and accomplishments. Besides, they show values the individual shares with the peer group and with the out-side world. Objects become a mirror of the self.14

The identity of Dutch Sephardim has been subject to much research. In this framework, material aspects have been highlighted as well, but could get some more attention. As the anthropologist Igor Kopytoff underlined, a person’s identity is not only numerous but often also con-flicting. There is no clear hierarchy of loyalties that makes one identity dominant over the others.15

Applying these concepts to Dutch Sephardim one can wonder what objects can tell us about their identity as Conversos, as ‘New Jews’16 and as members of the Spanish Portuguese nation worldwide, while at pre-sent living and working in a Dutch entourage; which components of identity are strongly represented and at what periods; into what extent

12. E. Goffman, The presentation of self in everyday life (New York 1990-19591). 13. Ibid., p. 32-33 and 114-115; Goffman’s themes like ‘frontstage’ and ‘backstage’ have been

used by John Loughman and John Michael Montias (Public and Private Spaces) throughout their book and introduced there on p. 71. We should not, however, confine frontstage spaces to the hall, corridors and rooms at the façades of the mansions. Often, garden rooms and best rooms (and later dining rooms) were also considered as areas of representation and reception, not necessarily situated at the façades of the houses.

14. See on further discussion of anthropological and sociological views on these aspects of objects in Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 80-81.

15. I. Kopytoff, ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’, in A. Appa-durai (ed.), The Social Life of Things. Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge 1986), p. 89-90.

16. For the term ‘New Jews’, see Y. Kaplan, From New Christians to New Jews (Jerusalem 2003) (in Hebrew); idem, ‘Wayward New Christians and Stubborn New Jews: The Shaping of a Jewish Identity’, Jewish History 8/1-2 (1994), p. 27-39.


conflicts of identity were expressed materially. Can we see clear develop-ments away from Spanish-Portuguese, Catholic culture in which they were brought up into a more Jewish and Dutch/North-European one? If Dutch Sephardim were so-called ‘cultural carriers’, moving culture from south to north, mixing it with new elements they encountered in their country of origin and on their way, what elements of this culture do we meet inside of their homes? Could a further analysis of material culture contribute to a finer definition of what early modern Dutch Sephardi identity was all about?

Over the years I gathered files relating to material culture of Dutch Sephardim, to be found in the Notarial Archives, in those of the Insolvent Estates Office and in those of the Orphan Chamber Archives in Amster-dam and The Hague. The material consists mostly of wills and inventories, around 200 documents covering a period of 150 years (1600-1750).17 Even though the poor were highly represented among the Dutch Sephardim most documents we found, give details on the more well-to-do among them. Inventories, made up before marriage or after death and bank-ruptcies offer us a glimpse into the home interior of Dutch Sephardim and form an interesting source for further investigation into the material aspects of Dutch Sephardi identity.18

Iberian Heritage

Quite a few Dutch Sephardim kept to an Iberian look, literally: often they preferred to dress up like Iberians. Even though their style was often

17. City Archives Amsterdam/Stadsarchief Amsterdam (henceforth SAA) entry no. 5072: Archives of the Governors of the Insolvent Estates Office (Archief van de Commissarissen van de Desolate Boedelkamer); SAA entry no. 5073: Archives of the Orphan Chamber (Archief van de Weeskamer en Commissie van Liquidatie der Zaken van de Voormalige Weeskamer); SAA entry no. 5075: Archives of Notaries in Amsterdam (Archief van de Notarissen ter standplaats Amster-dam); Municipal Archives The Hague/Haags Gemeente Archief (HGA) entry no. 0372-01: Archives of Notaries, The Hague I (Notarieel archief Den Haag I). On the importance of research into similar inventories see Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 81-84; eadem, ‘Boedelinventaris-onderzoek. Bronnen, Methodologie en Eerste resultaten’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheid-kundig Bond 84 (2/3) June 1985, p. 130-135.

18. Since this paper presents a first report on work-in-progress, different aspects are still in need of additional research: more attention should be given to the various categories of financial strength of those Dutch Sephardim, whose inventories were studied; the evolution of material cul-ture over the early modern period should be further differentiated. Also the material relation between first generation immigrants and their offspring needs deeper elaboration.


similar to that of the Dutch merchant class and Dutch tailors made their clothes, Iberian fashionable trends were followed as well: we found several references to ‘Spanish and Portuguese clothes’, not only in the wardrobe of first-generation émigrés, but also in that of later ones.19 Apparently they involved Spanish and Portuguese tailors as well, on the Iberian peninsula or in the Southern Netherlands. The predilection for a Spanish look can also be deduced from the way Portuguese hair dressers in Amsterdam were taught to make wigs, namely ‘in Spanish style’.20 Yet, the Iberian look was not only a matter of clothing and hairstyle. Preference for objects of Iberian origin was en vogue among Dutch Sephardim as well.

Empty-handed they did not always arrive, but often well-prepared, making sure they were accompanied with or sending ahead, not only cash, but also goods in trunks and chests, often containing objects of high value.21 Sara Cohen de Herrera and her husband apparently took

19. In the inventory of Mirjam Alvares three Portuguese shirts were found (for source see above note 10): ‘Op t Comptoir…Drie Portugaelse hembden’; Josua de Prado born in Amsterdam, apparently ordered Spanish clothes or material from the peninsula or the Spanish Netherlands or did he inherit the clothes from his father? (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7490, no. 52, 28 September 1708, Not. J. van den Ende, Specificatie van de juwelen, kleinoden, mitsgaders van het goudt, silver….in den huyse bij den Heer Josua alias Anthonio de Prado: ‘Op d’Agterkamer, boven de Sael…Een Spaens zijde camisool; een ditto met zilvere kanten; een Spaens camisool, met goude kanten; Drie Spaanse broeken daeronder een met gout geborduurt; negen Spaanse mansrokken; twee Spaense scharlaken camesolen; twee Spaanse zijde manteltjes; een Spaanse swarte broek met een vest’); Rachel de Spinosa Henriques must have also cherished Spanish fashion since she dressed herself in Spanish style. Perhaps they were ordered, made in and imported from Brussels, where her brother lived, although the purchases might have been made before 1713 as since that date, the Austrian Habsburgs ruled the Southern Netherlands (Rachel de Spinosa Henriques: SAA entry no. 334, no. 694, Not. J. Barels, 18 November 1737, p. 95-97: ‘een Spaanse mantel met een borst van purper met gouden bloemen en een dito rok; een Spaans hembd met zwart kant; een Spaans camisool; een kist met Spaanse kleren; twee Spaanse corchetten van wit Santijn met goude en zilvere kant’). For the impor-tant position of tailors in Brussels, see De Laet, Brussel Binnenskamers, p. 180. For clothes of Dutch Sephardim made by Dutch tailors see T. Levie Bernfeld, ‘Sephardi Women in Holland’s Golden Age’, in J.R. Lieberman, Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora (Hanover, NH 2011) p. 187.

20. SAA entry no. 334, no. 1211, 12 Tishri 5494, p. 125. 21. For transfer of cash see T. Levie Bernfeld, Poverty and Welfare among the Portuguese of

Early Modern Amsterdam (Oxford 2012), p. 22, 171; for transfer of goods see ibid., p. 29-30: in 1617 refugees from St. Jean de Luz shipped their goods to Amsterdam; some more examples: the Palache family did plan to arrive in Amsterdam with personal property but it was lost when their ship was attacked in Safi on their way (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 339, Not. W. Benninck, 21 June 1617, p. 244; published on p. 95 in Studia Rosenthaliana 11/1 (January 1977); for other families fleeing the penin-sula for Amsterdam, while bringing over their luggage see A.M. Vaz Dias, ‘Een blik in de Marranen-historie: Gegevens uit het notarieel archief van Amsterdam’, De Vrijdagavond, 9/7(13 May 1932), p. 109 [anno 1649]; needless to say, many poor arrived to Amsterdam penniless, without any possession (Levie Bernfeld, Poverty and Welfare, ch. 2).


along a silver plate made in Portugal. They later bestowed it upon the Amsterdam Portuguese community of Neve Salom.22 The family of Debora Curiel probably brought along a large silver plate as well. It was made in Portugal as it was called ‘a work of Portugal’ (‘obra de Portugal’).23 The de Pinto family sent from Antwerp jewelry, gold, silver, tapestries and other valuable objects to the Dutch Republic, ahead of their flight from that city.24 Lea Sagaetje was left in Amsterdam with an inheritance of four Spanish female diamond rings that came from Spain.25 In a lot of other cases valuable pieces was clearly described as from Iberian origin: Rachel de Prado owned among others an antique golden coin from Portugal (‘Portugalois’) and a Spanish candlestick, that accompanied her family in its exit from the Iberian peninsula.26

Once well settled Dutch Sephardim tried to express their multifac-eted identity and crave for their country of origin by ordering objects to be sent to them from the peninsula or from other areas under Iberian influence. Merchants also imported Iberian products from the Spanish and Portuguese empire, to be sold to Sephardim and other inhabitants of the Dutch Republic. There were shops in Amsterdam owned by Sephardim and Dutch alike selling Iberian products, like Portuguese and Spanish mats, a popular item among the Dutch Sephardim and also localized among the Dutch well-to-do.27 Other items originally from

22. On the plate of Sara Cohen de Herrera see J.-M. Cohen, ‘The Inventory of Ceremonial Objects of the Portuguese Community of Amsterdam in 1640’, in Studia Rosenthaliana 37 (2004), p. 261, 302.

23. SAA entry no. 5075, no. 6039, Not. P. Schabaelje, 8 April 1708, p. 132: ‘una palangana de plata obra de Portugal’.

24. H.P. Salomon, ‘The “De Pinto Manuscript”: A Seventeenth-Century Marrano Family History’, Studia Rosenthaliana 9/1 (1975), p. 29.

25. SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 21 April 1665, p. 1167. 26. Rachel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 3369, Not. H. Outgers, 17 January 1706, p. 386:

‘Een goude Portugalois…[p. 387] Een Spaans vergult zoutvat…[p. 388] een Spaanse zoutvat…Een Spaanse kandelaer met twee snuyters’); for the antique golden coin ‘Portugalois’ or ‘Português’ see F.M. de Melo, ‘Apólogo Dialogal Segundo’, in idem, Apólogos Dialogais, vol. ii (Lisbon 1959 [first published in 1657]; with foreword and introduction by José Pereira Tavares), p. 9 (with thanks to Prof Dr B.N. Teensma who provided me with this reference); at home with Isaac Bueno were ‘silverwerck van diversche suarte soo Amsterdams als Spaens’ (SAA entry no. 5075 no. 2261 B, Not. A. Lock, 5 July 1661, p. 840); for the so-called taza taken from Spain c. 1580, belonging to the Portuguese community at present see J.-M. Cohen, ‘Van Tilrimoniem tot zijden pers. Ceremoniële voorwerpen uit het bezit van de Portugees-Israëlitiesche synagoge’, De Snoge. Monument van Portugees-joodse cultuur, p. 83.

27. For shops of Spanish and Portuguese mats see the so-called Personeele Quotisatie of 1742, where it is stated that Isaac Senior Coronel had a shop of mats (‘mattenwinkel’) in Amstelstraat


Spain and Portugal were simply made in the Dutch Republic: the Span-ish chair (‘Spaanse stoel’), for example, became so popular in the Low Countries that it was quickly reproduced by Dutch craftsmen, to be found in many Dutch interiors, including those of Dutch Sephardim.28 We also spotted a Sephardi couple making a living by producing so-called Spanish or Portuguese play cards.29

No big surprise therefore to encounter, as in Suasso’s case, Dutch Sephardi homes filled with objects relating to their country of origin. Furniture is an interesting example: beds, tables, cabinets and chests from Iberian origin were almost always exclusively found in Dutch Sephardi interiors. We mentioned the Portuguese display bed in Suasso’s mansion and found many more of those (Spanish and Portuguese) among Dutch Sephardim elsewhere.30 Besides, as we read the inventories, Span-ish chests, Spanish cabinets and Spanish tables of expensive woodsorts (teak – ‘sackredane’ – and wood from Lisbon – ‘Lisbons hout’ –)

(W.F.H. Oldewelt, Kohier van de Personeele Quotisatie te Amsterdam over het jaar 1742, 2 vols. (Amsterdam 1945), vol. 2, p. 88 no. 4430); see also the shop of Jan van Beek at Binnen Amstel (ibid., p. 82 no. 3973); Jet Pijzel cites the Leydse Courant of 1737 in which mention is made of a certain Azulay in Amsterdam who was selling Spanish mats (Jet Pijzel-Dommisse, ‘1700-1750’, in Fock, Het Nederlandse interieur, p. 197; for Spanish mats in interiors of non-Jews: Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 107; see for Portuguese or Spanish mats in the interiors of Dutch Sephardim, Joseph and Emanuel Athias (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 December 1695 and 2 January 1696, p. 62v: ‘3 portugeese vloer-matten’); Ester Rocamora (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7545, Not. J. van Vilekens, 26 May 1721: ‘In het kantoortje…een Spaense mat’); Abraham Jessurun d’Oliveira (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 45, 20 November 1749: ‘Op de zolder…eenige Spaanse vloermatten’); Eliseba de Pinto Suasso (HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 2083, Not. J. Sijthoff, 10 May 1747: ‘Een Spaensche vloermat’); in Abraham Henriques Juliao’s mansion, Spanish mats could be found all over the place (SAA entry no, 5072, no. 636, 20 September 1718, p. 182-195). In the inventories of the house of Orange, Portuguese mats could also be localized (Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen, e.g. p. 368 no. 1400: ‘eenige Portugaalse matten’; ibid., p. 624 no. 75: ‘een Portugaalse mate onder het ledikant’).

28. For the so-called ‘Spaanse stoel’ in Dutch and European interiors see R. Baarsen, ‘De “Spaanse stoelenmakers”’, in idem, Wonen in de Gouden Eeuw. 17de-eeuwse Nederlandse meubelen (Amsterdam 2007), p. 61-79; Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 97; Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 19-20; De Laet, Brussel Binnenskamers, p. 113, 335 n. 177.

29. For the production of so-called ‘Portuguese cards’ by Dutch Sephardim see Levie Bern-feld, ‘Sephardi Women’, p. 186.

30. Spanish and Portuguese display beds: Hester Cabesos (Hester da Fonseca) (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 5 June 1665, p. 1163: ‘Portugaese ledicant’); Papers concerning the estate of Mirjam Alvares (for source see above n. 10): ‘A meu irmaõ Joseph Alvares a cama de Portugaal com seus colchões e cabecais…Op t Comptoir…Een Portugaels behangsel tot een ledikant’); Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 145v: ‘op het saeltie…een Spaense ledekant’); Moses de Salomon Salom (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4250, Not. D. van der Groe, 27 May 1705, p. 1119: ‘op de Slaepkamer…een Spaens ledicant’).


were discovered, sometimes equipped with drawers inlaid with tortoise leather.31

Also other products must have been taken along, imported or bought in town, like Portuguese baskets, Spanish mattresses, Spanish blankets, Spanish bedspreads and tablecloths, Spanish pillows and pillowcases, Spanish and Portuguese fabric and Spanish glass.32

31. Spanish chests: Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 148: ‘opde voor Caemer…een Spaense kist’); Joseph Baruch (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 4 February 1697, p. 187v: ‘t volgende werd gezegt aan de Wede Abendana te behooren…een Spaanze Kist met Coper beslag’); Samuel de Lion (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 2 March 1678, p. 239v: ‘een Spaense kist’). Clothes were often stowed away in chests. The chests were also used to move goods overseas: Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 97-98.

Spanish cabinets: Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 144: ‘twee Spaense Cabinetten); Isaac Bueno (SAA entry no. 5075 no. 2261 B, Not. A. Lock, p. 841, 5 July 1661: ‘drie Spaense cabinetgens’); Julias Henriques (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 16 Octo-ber 1659, p. 794: ‘een Spaens cabinetje met laetgens van Lisbons hout’); Joseph de los Rios(SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 2 March 1665, p. 1120: ‘Een Spaens cabinetge met schillepadt ingeleijt..noch twee cleijne dito’). For the use of cupboards and cabinets see Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 97-98.

Spanish tables: Maria Mendez de Medeiros (SAA entry no. 5075 no. 1555A, Not. J. Oli, 22 December 1638, p. 404: ‘hua taba de meza despanha’); Isaac Bueno (SAA entry no. 5075 no. 2261 B, Not. A. Lock, 5 July 1661, p. 841: ‘drie Spaense cleijne taefels van sackredane hout’).

32. Portuguese baskets: Maria Mendez de Medeiros (SAA entry no. 5075 no. 1555A, Not. J. Oli, 22 December 1638, p. 397: ‘hu sesto de portugal’).

Spanish mattresses: Samuel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 639, 12 November 1721, p. 125: ‘Op de voorkamer…6 Spaanse matrasse’).

Spanish blankets: Jacob Cardoze (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2262 B, Not. A. Lock, 18 February 1674, p. 765: ‘Twee Spaense deeckens, een wit en een roode’); Joseph Baruch (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 4 February 1697, p. 187: ‘een Japonse deken…een Spaense do’); Hester Leal (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261 A, Not. A. Lock, 24 March 1676, p. 639: ‘twee witte Spaense deeckens’); for Spanish blankets in the House of Orange mansions: Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen, p. 170 no. 16: ‘een witte Spaensche deken’.

Spanish bedspreads and tableclothes: Rachel de Spinosa Henriques (SAA entry no. 334, no. 694, Not. J. Barels, 18 November 1737, p. 94-95: ‘twee geel gestikte Spaense sprijen’); Salomon Aboab Jenes (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2262 A, Not. A. Lock, 13 January 1671, p. 360: ‘drie Spaense genaijde bedde spreen met een dito tafelcleet’); a chest sent from Livorno contained among others ‘drie Spaense genaijde bedde spreen’ (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2262 A, Not. A. Lock, 4 December 1670, p. 345); for a Spanish tablecloth sent from Livorno see ibid., p. 346. For Spanish blankets and covers found in inventories in Brussels, see De Laet, Brussel Binnenskamers, p. 335 n. 177.

Spanish pillows and pillowcases: Abraham Henriques Juliao (SAA entry no, 5072, no. 636, 20 September 1718, p. 191: ‘3 Spaanse sloopjes’); Josua de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7490, no. 52, Not. J. van den Ende, 28 September 1708: ‘Op de agterkamer boven de sael…seven zijde Spaense stoelkussens met quasten’).

Spanish and Portuguese fabric: Mordecai Franco (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 644B, p. 1030-3, Not. S. Cornelisz., 17 October 1624 (see also Studia Rosenthaliana 29/2 [1995], p. 221-222): ‘hum pedaco de panno de linho fino de Portugal’); Josua de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7490, no. 52, Not. J. van den Ende, 28 September 1708: ‘Op de agterkamer boven de sael…een pakje Spaens


The predilection of Dutch Sephardim for Portuguese majolica is another expression of their attachment to Iberian culture. In a period in which China (and its imitation Delft) porcelain were most desirable items in early modern Europe, Dutch Sephardim often preferred Portu-guese majolica which was in high demand in Europe as well.33 Samuel Cardoso, for example, owned Portuguese and Spanish cans, cups and pots.34 David Lopes Henriques put Portuguese ceramics on top of his cabinet as the Dutch would do so with Chinese or Delft pieces.35 Rachel de Prado owned a Spanish plate and so did Rachel Medina Chamis, who in her best room also showed off with 9 pieces of Spanish pots and cups on top of a cabinet.36

The predilection for Portuguese majolica can be derived from docu-ments. Moreover, archeological excavations in the so-called Jewish dis-trict of the city of Amsterdam also brought a lot of Portuguese majolica to the surface. The pieces were not only meant for daily use, but for front-stage appearance as well: often majolica plates and cups proudly display Portuguese and Spanish family names, their coat of arms and Iberian landscapes. If not taken along or bought in Amsterdam, these

linnegoedt’). Fabric meant to produce Torah mantles was supposedly imported from the peninsula or Italy as suggested by J.-M. Cohen, ‘Van Tilrimoniem tot zijden pers’, p. 76; Torah mantles from Italy or the peninsula could also have stand as models for those made in Amsterdam: eadem, ‘The Migration of Ceremonial Objects: the Case of the Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish Torah Mantle’, Studia Rosenthaliana 35/2 (2001), p. 207; for Torah mantles and binders imported from Italy (Livorno), see SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2262 A, Not. A. Lock, 4 December 1670, p. 345.

Spanish glass: Moses Cabesos (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261 B, Not. A. Lock, 5 June 1665, p. 1163: ‘een cleijn koffertje met Spaens glaswerck’).

33. For export of Portuguese faience from Portugal to the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century see J. Baart, ‘Portugese Faience uit Amsterdamse bodem’, in Portugese Faience/Faiança Por-tuguesa 1600-1660 (Amsterdam/Lisbon 1987-88), p. 23-24. For Portuguese faience used among Portu-guese in Hamburg see M. Studemund-Halévy, ‘The Persistence of Images: Reproductive Success in the History of Sephardi Sepulchral Art’, in Y. Kaplan (ed.), The Dutch Intersection: the Jews and the Netherlands in Modern History (Leiden 2008), p. 137-138.

34. Samuel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 264: ‘20 stucx soo cans als potten van Portegael oertgemerckt…[p. 264v] 8 ronde Spaense copjens…[p. 265v] 9 stucx Spaense potten oft coppens’).

35. David Lopes Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 631, 19 January 1711, p. 407). 36. Rachel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 3369, Not. J. van den Ende, 17 January 1706,

p. 387); Rachel Medina Chamis (SAA entry no. 334, no. 658, Not. J. Barels, 12 August 1738: ‘Op de Pronkamer…Cabinet met Cooperbeslag daarop vier potjes Portugués aardewerk’). For Chinese and Delft in Dutch interiors, Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Vreemd en eigen’, p. 98; Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 110-111.


pieces of majolica could also have been ordered in Portugal, once Sephar-dim safely settled in their new place of residence.37

In brief, nostalgia for the past and for Iberian roots must have been an important component of Dutch Sephardi identity. But there was more than only Iberian culture that filled Sephardi hearts and homes.

International Élan

The strongly Iberian atmosphere in Dutch Sephardi houses was a bit neutralized by the international flavor it also radiated. Back on the pen-insula, many New Christians had already been active in international trade and were up-to-date with objects and influences from far-flung areas. And so was the Dutch merchant and regent class. Moreover, early modern Amsterdam, an international staple market, offered goods from all over the world.38 Europeans came to Amsterdam to buy exotic prod-ucts.39 In Amsterdam, one could get a variety of all sorts: East Indian textiles,40 French side tables or guéridons,41 Japanese cabinets,42 Chinese porcelain,43 Turkish carpets44 and the Dutch Sephardim apparently got

37. J. Baart, ‘Portugese faience 1600-1660. Een studie van bodemvondsten en museumcollecties’, in R. Kistemaker and T. Levie [Bernfeld], Êxodo, Portugezen in Amsterdam 1600-1680 (Amsterdam 1987), p. 18-24; Baart, ‘Portugese Faience’, p. 19-27.

38. J.L. van Zanden, ‘Economic Growth in the Golden Age: the Development of the Economy of Holland 1500-1650’, in K. Davids and L. Noordegraaf (eds), The Dutch economy in the Golden Age (Amsterdam 1993), p. 5-26; Th. Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Het Hollands Interieur in beeld en geschrift’, Theo-retische Geschiedenis 23/2 (1996), p. 146-147; Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 20.

39. Th. Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘De wereld ontsloten. Aanvoer van rariteiten naar Nederland’, in E. Bergvelt en R. Kistemaker (eds), De wereld binnen handbereik. Nederlandse kunst- en rariteiten-verzamelingen 1585-1735 (Zwolle 1992), p. 39-51; Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 23.

40. Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 102; Pijzel-Dommisse, ‘1700-1750’, p. 190. 41. Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 108. 42. Fock, ‘1600-1650’, p. 42: apart from Asia, many cabinets seem to be imported from other

cities and countries, like from Antwerp and southern Germany, where Spanish styled cabinets could have been produced as well. It might not be surprising, then, that Iberian furniture was imported from the peninsula or elsewhere. In the so-called Kistemakerspand in Kalverstraat of Amsterdam, foreigners and locals came to buy foreign cupboards and cabinets: Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 108.

43. Fock, ‘1600-1650’, p. 45; eadem, ‘1650-1700’, p. 111; Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Het Hollandse interieur’, p. 156; many shops sold products from the East Indies.

44. Fock, ‘1600-1650’, p. 41, 58 (picture 27); eadem, ‘1650-1700’, p. 107, 131 (picture 84), 138 (picture 92), 156 (picture 111). For Turkish carpets to cover Dutch floors, in use since the last two decennia of the seventeenth century as in Rachel Suasso de Pinto’s mansion see C.W. Fock, ‘Werke lijkheid of schijn. Het beeld van het Hollands interieur in de zeventiende-eeuwse genreschilder kunst’, in Oud Holland 112 (1998/4), p. 209-215.


them there. And if objects could not be bought in Amsterdam, the well-to-do among the Dutch and Sephardi alike, purchased them abroad.45 Consequently Dutch Sephardi homes and those of non-Jews were filled with objects from far-flung areas and must have looked quite similar in this respect.

Often the hall and front rooms of their mansions, the working area of the family, were embellished with maps depicting different parts of the world, be it Europe or Brazil.46 By acquiring globes and atlases Dutch Sephardim displayed their international élan once more, besides their interest to orient themselves across the different parts of the world, perhaps to remember old expeditions or to prepare for new ones.47

45. For an impression of objects acquired in Amsterdam or abroad see Fock, ‘1600-1650’,p. 18-19; eadem, ‘1650-1700’, p. 82, 105; Pijzel-Dommisse, ‘1700-1750’, p. 183, 199, 200; for Dutch Sephardi houses filled with international favored objects like Turkish carpet tablecloths and Brazilian chests, East Indian cabinets, chests and blankets, Chinese porcelain, English chairs and cabinets, Japanese cabinets and chests, see e.g. Abraham Jessurun d’Oliveira (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 45, 20 November 1749); Isaac Bueno (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261 B, Not. A. Lock, 5 July 1661, p. 839v-43v); Jacob Vais (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not A. Lock, 11 April 1657, p. 678-684); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 952-1009); Jeronimo Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 573, 21 July 1647, p. 200-203v); Josua de Prado (SAA NA 5075 no. 7490, no. 52, Not. J. van den Ende, 28 September 1708); Rachel de Spinosa Henriques (SAA entry no. 334, no. 694, inventory Not J. Barels, 18 November 1737, p. 49-123); Salvador Rodrigues (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not. A. Lock, 16 March 1654, p. 505-512); Samuel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 639, 12 November 1721, p. 121-127); Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 143-150).

46. Maps of Brazil: Samuel Cardoso owned a map of Brazil, which hang in his hall, a place common for maps (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 265); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 972: ‘Op de hofsteede…een caert van Brasil’).

Maps of Europe: Jacob Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 613, 9 January 1686, p. 18v: ‘Opde beste Caemer…een do [schilderij] verbeeldende Europa’).

Maps of the four continents: Joseph and Emanuel Athias (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 Decem-ber 1695 and 2 January 1696, p. 63: ‘Op de voorkamer aan de regterhandt…4 kaerten der vier aert-bodems delen in vergulde lijsten’).

Maps without further description: see e.g. those of David Lopes Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 631, 19 January 1711, p. 407: ‘In de gangh…drie kaarten’). For maps in Dutch interiors and their location see Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 85, 110.

47. For globes: Jacob Hamies de Jonge (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 593, p. 252, 7 January 1665, p. 252: ‘twee glooben’); for the four globes [of Blaeu] in the office of David Nunes Torres see Y. Kaplan, ‘Spinoza in the Library of an Early Modern Dutch Sephardic Rabbi’, in C. Herman and L. Simonutti (eds), La Centralitá del dubbio. Un progetto di Antonio Rotondò (Florence 2011), vol. 1, p. 651; for globes in Dutch interiors see Fock, ‘1600-1650’, p. 56-57 (picture 25); eadem,‘1650-1700’, p. 110, 179 (picture 143).

For atlases [of Blaeu]: Daniel Francisco Pereira de Castro (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 6551, Not. J. van Duijnkercken, 21 January 1705, p. 1405); for more on the atlases of Blaeu: J. Blaeu and J. Goss, Blaeu’s The Grand Atlas of the 17th century world (London 1997); for the Spanish edition of


In almost every household in Holland, rich and poor alike, one could find paintings to cover the walls.48 Dutch painters, around 5000 in total, produced about 5 to 10 million paintings in the early modern period.49 The abundance of paintings was noticed by visitors from abroad.50 Dutch Sephardim must have been eager buyers or patrons of figurative art as well, despite the second commandment against the making of graven images, which has never been strictly guarded by Jews, and certainly not by Dutch Sephardim: on their walls, mostly of the best rooms or halls, one could observe different paintings and portraits, depicting persons, biblical and others.51 Even sculptures, not only of animals but also of human beings were brought in, to add status to their houses or gardens.52

Portraits of kings and queens were already localized in Suasso’s mansion like those of the kings and queens of Spain; portraits of other heads of state like those of the kings of France were represented as well, while Manuel Duarto Brandes kept it more local: he owned a portrait of a Dutch leader, the stadtholder Frederik Hendrik and his wife.53 The

the Blaeu atlases produced with assistance of Dutch Sephardim: H. de la Fontaine Verwey, ‘De Spaanse uitgave van de atlas van Blaeu’, Maandblad Amstelodanum 39 (1952), p. 3-7.

48. A. van der Woude, ‘De schilderijenproductie in Holland tijdens de Republiek. Een poging tot kwantificatie’, in A. Schuurman, J. de Vries and A. van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk. De Neder-landers en hun spullen van 1550 tot 1850 (Amsterdam 1997), p. 231 table 8.8.

49. Ibid., p. 240-243. The production was made by painters who lived in the province of Holland; see also Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Het Hollands Interieur’, p. 159 n. 8: she calculated an aver-age of 12 paintings per regents’ family in the period 1620-1640 and one of 44 over 1660-1670.

50. Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 105. 51. Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 308-310; Steven Nadler, Rembrandt’s Jews (Chi-

cago 2003), p. 76-82. 52. For the marble bust of Isaac Israel Suasso (c. 1675-1695 by Rombout Verhulst) see the

collection of the Amsterdam Museum; for sculptures in the Joseph and Emanuel Athias’ collection, see SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 December 1695 and 2 January 1696, p. 59v: ‘veertien albaste beeltiens…[p. 62v]…een ingeleyd Cabinet daarop 3 vergulde beeldties…twee busten’; Pinhas Abar-banel owned a painting with statutes (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 609, 4 March 1683, p. 266v: ‘Int voorhuijs…een Schilderije daerin eenige beelde’); for a collection of Chinese sculptures at home with Rachel Levy Flores Curiel (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1018, no. 20, 6 August 1756: ‘Drie en twintig cineze beeldjens en beesjens’); for sculptures in and around Dutch houses see Pijzel-Dommisse, ‘1700-1750’, p. 201; Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 37-39. On a responsum by Haham Saul Levi Morteira on the question whether Jews were allowed to keep paintings and sculp-tures at home (with an affirmative answer, albeit reluctantly), see M. Saperstein, Exile in Amsterdam. Saul Levi’s Sermons to a Congregation of ‘New Jews’ (Cincinnati 2005), p. 19, 190 and there note 21.

53. For the portrait of Frederik Hendrik and his wife at home with Manuel Duarto Brandes see SAA entry no. 5072, no. 570, 31 December 1643, p. 30v: ‘In de binnecaemer…Twee conterfeijt-sels van de Prins Hendrick ende de princesse’; for other political portraits among Dutch Sephardim, see the portrait of the kings of France mentioned in the last will of Sara Alvares (SAA entry no. 334,


presence of political portraits at home was a quite common phenomenon among non-Jews as well.54 In fact, different quarters of the house of Orange were equally filled with portraits of Spanish, French and English kings despite the fact that the house of Orange once had taken the lead in the bitter fight against the different crowns.55 Therefore, one may wonder whether the possession of portraits of different European ruling families had anything to do with expression of special political interest, explicit loyalty or distinct reverence. Their presence could have been related to background, work or inheritance. Or was it merely fashionable? In fact, many people just bought paintings to fill their walls.

Interest into world history cannot be deduced from the presence of polit-ical portraits or history books filling Sephardi libraries, only.56 It is also to be inferred through paintings relating to history, mythology and philosophy. The latter were well represented among Dutch Sephardim: Samuel Cardoso, for example, possessed a painting of a Roman hero [i.e. Marcus Curtius] and Jean Cardoso put up a painting of Bacchus in his best room.57 Rachel Suasso had a series of paintings of 12 philosophers in her gallery, apparently depicted by the Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera. We do not know whether it deals here with anonymous figures or with explicit personages.58

119a, no. 16, Not. A. Lock, 23 December 1671, p. 486: ‘hum painel…dos reis de fransa’); Francisco Lopes de Lis (c. 1740) possessed a large collection of portraits of kings, diplomats and nobles of France, Spain and Portugal; he was also the owner of a marble bust of the Portuguese ambassador in The Hague, Dom Luis da Cunha (E. van Biema, ‘Episoden uit het leven van Francesco de Liz, naar bescheiden uit de archieven’, Die Haghe [Jaarboek 1914/15], p. 214-217); for other examples, see Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 308.

54. For examples among non-Jews, see Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 46-48, 73, 74, 75; see also A. de Beer (‘Schilderijenbezit in Maastricht, 1627-1757’, De Maasgouw 177/1 [1998], p. 64-65) for a remarkable presence of portraits of different European sovereigns among inventories of Maastricht’s citizens.

55. Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen, p. 210 no. 672: ‘een schilderei van den coninck van Spangien, Philips de Tweede’; ibid., p. 206 no. 592: ‘schilderije van Louys, coninck van Vranckrijck’; ibid., p. 526 no. 101: ‘Carel de eerste coning van Engelland’.

56. See for the different libraries of Dutch Sephardim, Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 302-306; Kaplan, ‘Spinoza in the Library’, p. 639-662.

57. For Samuel Cardoso see SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 265; for Jean Cardoso: SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 953; for more paintings on classics-mythology: Jeronimo Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 573, 21 July 1647, p. 201: ‘4 schil-derij van Griecksche letteren’).

58. HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 752, Not. S. Favon, 25 March 1704, p. 144v: ‘In de galderije twaelff portraicten sijnde philosophen’; this series apparently stayed in the family: we come across a similar series (‘twaalff Philosophen door Spagnolet’) with a descendant of Rachel, namely Francisco van Antonio Lopes Suasso (SAA entry no. 295, no. 6, 31 July 1800) who owned them; Spanjolet was


Other paintings reveal important historical battles on land and sea and other themes of history.59

Awareness of history and memory also found expression in family portraiture demonstrating warmth and centrality of Dutch Sephardi family life at the same time.60 Some of these portraits could have been brought from the Iberian peninsula since in mid-seventeenth-century inventories, reference is made to portraits of parents or in-laws.61 With careful linguistic usage these panels were often handled and transferred to the next generation.62 Well-known are the portraits of Dutch Sephardi rabbi’s as well as those of Sephardi doctors like Efraim Bueno or mer-chants-bankers like Don Antonio or Don Francisco Lopes Suasso.63 But

a Spanish-Italian painter (1591-1652) and is also known as Jusepe de Ribera; on the presence of paintings of philosophers among non-Jews, see also Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 82.

59. For battles (‘bataille’): Moses and David Juda Leon (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 599, 10 July 1672, p. 232v: ‘bataille te land’); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 952: ‘een slagh off Roof van soldaten…een straetsvaerder slaende tegens eenige turcxe galeijen…[p. 961]…bestorming van Naerden’).

for more history painting: Isaac Uziel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 597, 27 April 1669, p. 148: ‘Een Franse historie’); Abraham Rodrigues Carion (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 591, 10 October 1662, p. 63: ‘6 slegte historie schilderijen’); Isaac Delmonte (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 604, 14 January 1677, p. 164v: ‘een lanckwerpig historie schilderij’).

60. Nadler (Rembrandt’s Jews, p. 83-85) points at an apparent lack of portraits among the Dutch Sephardim. Daniel Swetschinski on the other hand recognizes the presence of portraiture among the Dutch Sephardim (Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 309); for more on Sephardi family life, see Levie Bernfeld, ‘Sephardi Women’, 177-222.

61. Manuel Abolais (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 11 July 1661, p. 847: ‘Een conterfijtsel van de ouders van de overledene’); Jacob Hamies de Jonge (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 593, p. 252, 5 and 7 January 1665: ‘Een contrefijtsel van de vrouws vaeder’).

62. See e.g. the last will of Rachel de Spinosa Henriques (SAA entry no. 334, no. 694, Not. Ph. de Marolles, 18 November 1736, p. 22: ‘behalven de drie Portraitten twee van hare Testatrice en Een van haar Ed: broeder de Heer Abraham de Spinosa Henriques Zalr die nooijt verkogt zullen mogen warden maar altoos in het huijs moeten blijven’); see also last will of Ester, wife of Abraham Mendes da Costa (SAA entry no. 334, no. 665, Not. Daniel Marolles, 18 January 1770, p. 810: ‘Als mede aan haar Dogter Rachel Mendes da Costa insgelijks een snoer paarlen en het Ge-emailleerd Portrait of Brasselet van haar Grootvader omset met Diamanten, echter onder Conditie dat zij het zelven Portrait niet zal mogen verkopen versetten belasten ofte beswaaren min nog eenige veran-dering of te vermindering daaraan toe te brengen’).

63. R.I. Cohen, Jewish Icons. Art and Society in Modern Europe (Berkeley 1998), p. 115-153; Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 309; Y. Kaplan, ‘For Whom did Emanuel de Witte Paint his Three Pictures of the Sephardic Synagogue in Amsterdam?’, Studia Rosenthaliana 32/2 (1998), p. 141-142; Nadler, Rembrandt’s Jews, p. 84-85. For the portrait of Efraim Bueno by Rembrandt of 1647, see collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam; for the portrait of Don Antonio Lopes Suasso (author unknown; c. 1680), the so-called snuifdoos with the latter’s portrait and the portrait of his son Don Francisco Lopes Suasso (1677) (after Nicolaas Maes: 1634-1693), see the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam; see also the portrait of Leonore (alias Rachel) de Alvaro da


there were many, many more, finding a place at home both front- and backstage, showing both family pride and domesticity.64

Yet, other paintings of various sorts, besides those with topics like history and classics-mythology or the ones displaying political and fam-ily portraiture were represented. Dutch Sephardim also owned many genre, landscape, still life and allegory paintings.65 In this respect, as in others, Dutch Sephardim made clear they were safely established amidst

Costa (London 1669-The Hague 1749), wife of Don Francisco Lopes Suasso, collection Amsterdam Museum. For more portraits of the Lopes Suasso family in collection of the Jewish Historical Museum and Amsterdam Museum see the report of L. Schwartz, Portretten van de familie Lopes Suasso (Joods Historisch Museum 1991) and the lists of portraits attached there.

64. For family portraits in the most representative parts of the house see e.g. Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, p. 143v, 3 September 1677: ‘Inde binne Camer…een ditto [schilderij] sijnde het Conterfeijtsel van de vrouw’); Anthony Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 610, 12 Febru-ary 1685, p. 181: ‘int Voorhuijs…een Portrait van een kindt’); Samuel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 265: ‘In de beste Camer…2 vrouwe conterfeijtsels’); Moses de Salomon Salom (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4250, Not. D. van der Groe, 27 May 1705, p. 1117: ‘int Camertje bovent voorhuijs…drie schilderijen met een portrait’); Moses and David Juda Leon (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 599, 10 July 1672, p. 232v: ‘In ’t Voorhuijs…twee sijnde teene een vrouws en ’t andere een mans conterfijtsel…een schilderijtie daerin twee tronien’); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 953: ‘In de beste camer…een conterfijtsel van de overledene’); Mirjam Alvares (for source see above n. 10: ‘In de beste kamer…twee pourtraitten met vergulde lijsten en een cleijn dito…Een portrait in een silver casje…noch een ander in een Silver lijstje’); Manuel Duarto Brandes (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 570, 31 December 1643, p. 30v: ‘Int voorhuijs…het conterfeijtsel van Manuel Duarto Brandes op doeck gedaen’). For portraits found in the backstage area of Dutch Sephardim: Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 960: ‘Op de achtercamer…een conterfeijtsel van een vrouw’); Eliseba de Pinto Suasso (HGA entry no. 0372-01, no. 2083, Not. J. Sijthoff, 10 May 1747: ‘Op de Balcon Kamer…Elf Familie Pourtraiten…van de 30 Pourtraiten sijn er door de Heer Moses de Samuel de Pinto Selve wegh genoomen volgens de facultijt door hem bij het Testament gegeven…op het Cabinetje naest de voorschreeve agter boove kamer…een Portrait van de Famille…in het donckere Cabinetje…twee Famille Pourtraitten’); see on this and other Suasso and De Pinto family por-traits, P. Buijs and I. Faber, ‘Sources relating to the history of Portuguese-Jewish families: theDe Pinto and Lopes Suasso family’, Studia Rosenthaliana 32/2 (1998), p. 190-191. For a similar positioning of portraits among non-Jews, see Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 42-43, 87.

65. For paintings falling in the different categories see e.g.: – naked sculptures/figures: Salvador Rodrigues (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not. A. Lock, 16

March 1654, p. 506); Isaac Nunes Bernal (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 603, 11 September 1676, p. 181v); – landscape: Salvador Rodrigues (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not. A. Lock, 16 March 1654,

p. 506); Moses de Salomon Salom (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4250, Not. D. van der Groe, 27 May 1705, p. 1119, 1120);

– genre: Pinhas Abarbanel (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 609, 4 March 1683, p. 266v: ‘smith’); Manuel Abolais (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 11 July 1661, p. 847: ‘een luijtspeelder…een dito van een fluijtspeelder’).

– still life: Moses de Salomon Salom (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4250, Not. D. van der Groe, 27 May 1705, p. 1119); Moses and David Juda Leon (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 599, 10 July 1672, p. 232v);


the Dutch/European bourgeoisie and in aristocratic circles, open to past and present, to old and new trends and consequently stressed once more their cosmopolitan identity.

Jewish Identity

Dutch Sephardim made no secret of the fact that they had returned to the faith of their forefathers and joined the Jewish community. Many of them were very proud of their recovered Jewish identity and gave mate-rial expression to it. Let us see how.

Ritual objects are necessary tools to observe Jewish religion.66 There-fore it comes as no surprise that most Dutch Sephardim were proud owners of ceremonial art. Most common and widely found, even among the poorer families, were candle-sticks for Sabbath (in copper or silver ver-sion), if not those for the celebration of Hanukah.67 Frequently localized were Ester scrolls (megillot Ester), often valuable items because of the (silver) filigree cylinders through which they are wrapped, besides silver amulets (kemia, pl. kemi’im), (silk or lace) prayer shawls (talitot) and Jewish wedding rings of gold (quidusin).68

– animals: Moses de Salomon Salom (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4250, Not. D. van der Groe, 27 May 1705, p. 1120: ‘hennetjes van Hondecoeter’);

– allegory: Jacob Quisijn (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 11 October 1661, p. 874: ‘In de binnekamer…een dito [schilderij] van vanitas’); Jacob de Chamies (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 5 July 1677, p. 116: ‘vijff oude slechte schilderijen zijnde vijff sinne’); Moses Gabay Isidero (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 607, 26 March 1680, p. 199: ‘een historie vande vijf sinne’); for ‘bataille’ painting, see above n. 59; for history painting, see above n. 59; see also Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 308.

66. R.I. Cohen, Jewish Icons, 69-113. 67. For Shabbat lamps and hanukkiot see e.g. Anthony Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 610,

12 February 1685, p. 181v: ‘een Coopere Sabathlamp’); Maria Mendez de Medeiros (SAA entry no 5075, no. 1555A, Not. J. Oli, 22 December 1638, p. 402: ‘hua lampa de sabath con sua bolla…huas canoquilhas de cobre’); Rachel de Spinosa Henriques (SAA entry no. 334, no. 694, inventory Not J. Barels, 18 November 1737, p. 109: ‘Een koopere Sabah lamp en blaaker met een hanuca lamp’); Ester de Abm Keyzer (SAA entry no. 719, Not. N. Wilthuyzen, 9 May 1776, p. 63-66: ‘Een plaat van een Sabathlamp…een Machabé lamp…een silvere Sabattlamp…een do Machabé lamp’); Mirjam Alvares (for source see above n. 10: ‘m.as Hanuquilhas de prata’); Reyna Gomez (SAA entry no. 334, no. 119a, file 12, Not. D. van de Groe, 21 May 1679, p. 442: ‘1 Hanuquillas’).

68. Talitot: Maria Mendez de Medeiros (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 1555A, Not. J. Oli, 22 December 1638, p. 104: ‘hu talet’); Jacob Vais (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, 11 April 1657, Not A. Lock, p. 679: ‘Een Jootse kerckdoeck’). For a lace talit in the collection of the Jewish Historical


It is well known that Dutch Sephardim gave Torah scrolls (sifre torah) with silver and golden crowns including mantles of precious fab-ric, to their community on loan or as donations as was the ultimate allocation of many other ceremonial objects.69 However, sifre torah and their ornaments were also considered precious items to be kept at home within the family as a source of pride, often carefully hidden in gorgeous chests and transferred to the next generation.70

Museum see J.-.M. Cohen, ‘Notes on David Henriques de Castro Dzn (1837-1890)’, Studia Rosen-thaliana 32/2 (1998), 195-196.

Megillot Ester: Maria Mendez de Medeiros (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 1555A, Not. J. Oli,22 December 1638, p. 393: ‘hua megila’); Jacob Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 613, 10 January 1686, p. 22v: ‘Opt comptoir…de histoorije van Haman op een roll gewonden’); Sara Namias de Castro (SAA entry no. 334, no. 668, 18 April 1747, Not. J. Barels, p. 9: ‘in de keuken…een kist met daarin…een Historie van Hester op parkament’).

Kemia (pl. kemiim) (amulet): Moses Abrabanel (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2942, Not. J. van Vilekens, 30 January 1703, p. 90: ‘Een Gout boeckje met een goude kettingh bij de joode genaemt kemia’); Abraham de Isaac Bueno (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7532, Not. J. van Vilekens, 17 Septem-ber 1709, p. 726: ‘Een Do [goude] kemia wesende een boeckje’); Abraham Jessurun d’Oliveira(SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 45, 20 February 1749: ‘een gouden bel met een kemia’).

Kidushin (Jewish wedding ring): Reyna Gomez (SAA entry no. 334, no. 119a, file 12, Not. D. van de Groe, 21 May 1679, p. 442: ‘De oro…1=quedussin’); Mordecai Franco (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 644B, p. 1030-1033, Not. S. Cornelisz., 17 October 1624 (see also Studia Rosenthaliana 29/2 (1995), p. 221-222): ‘dous aneis de kedusin’).

Tefillin bag: Reyna Gomez (SAA entry no. 334, no. 119a, file 12, Not. D. van de Groe, 21 May 1679, p. 443: ‘una bolsa de tersiopelo morado bordado de oro de thepilins’); Judith Rodrigues Car-rion (SAA entry no. 334, no. 119bb, 14 June 1739, p. 793: ‘1 bolca pa tephilin’).

69. D.M. Swetschinski, Orphan Objects (Zwolle 1997), 123-125; J.-M. Cohen, ‘Presentation and Prestige in Amsterdam’s Synagogues’, in J.-M. Cohen, J. Kröger and E. Schrijver (eds.), Gifts from the Heart (Zwolle 2004), p. 101-109; see further J.-M. Cohen, ‘The inventory of Ceremonial Objects of the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam of 1640’, in J.-M. Cohen, S. Berger and I.E. Zwiep (eds), Jewish Ceremonial Objects in Transcultural Context (= Studia Rosenthaliana 37 (2004), p. 225-307.

70. Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 289; see further Ester de Abm Keyzer (SAA entry no. 334, no. 719, 9 November 1774, Not. N. Wilthuyzen, p. 70-71: Geprelegateerd…Een boek Mozes met silvere klokken en verdere ornamenten aan Rehuel Labat’); in 1708 Diego da Fonseca got from his father two very old Torah scrolls; one of these, the one with cape of gold and silver clothes with pearls had a place in a chest with him at home (Th. Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Wooncul-tuur en sociale verschillen’, in eadem (ed.), Den Haag, Geschiedenis van de stad, vol. 2 [Zwolle 2005], p. 282); Emanuel Abenatar bestowed upon his sons his sifre torah: ‘Wijders verklaarde H.r Testateur te prelegateren aan sijn H.r soon Jacob Abenatar, sijn H.r testateurs Boek Moses, ’t welk in de kerk is, met alle ornamenten van Mantel, silvere bellen off klocken, en verdere ciraden…aan sijn andere soon sijn andere Boek Moses sonder ornamenten ’t geen in sijn Hr. Testateurs huijs is’ (SAA entry no. 334, no. 609, Not. D. Cappelen, 15 May 1735). Salomon Aboab Jenes owned a Torah mantle (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2262A, Not. A. Lock, 13 January 1671, p. 360); Moses Abrabanel left his three sons and their heirs, also in feminine line, his sefer torah with all the ornaments; he explicitly stated that it may never be sold and had to stay in the synagogue (SAA entry no. 334, no. 613, Not. C. van Achthoven, 28 May 1722).


Often ceremonial objects were found in the backstage part ofthe house: the kitchen- and dining area: it indicates they were meantfor frequent use by the family in an atmosphere of domesticity andprivacy.71 Front-stage show of ceremonial objects was not unusual either: where we see copper Shabbat lamps or Hanukah candleholders (hanukiot) used in the kitchen area, silver versions were at display in the salon (the so-called salet, beste kamer or pronkkamer), the most representative part of the house together with other objects of value like sifre torah, talitot or prayer books in special leather bounds, with golden and silver locks.72

71. For ceremonial objects in the kitchen and dining area: Abraham Jessurun d’Oliveira (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 45, 20 November 1749: ‘In de keuken…Een Hanuka lamp; Een zilvere Sabathlamp’); Jacob Franco Drago (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 618, 8 September 1692, p. 35: ‘in de keuken…Een Sabathlamp’); Josua de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7490, no. 52, Not. J. van den Ende, 28 September 1708: ‘In de keuken en aldaer in de Glaese kas: een dito [silvere] sabath lamp’); Samuel Abarbanel Souza (SAA entry no. 334, no. 726, Not. J. Barels, 4 March 1732, p. 453: ‘In den keuken…een kopere Sabath lamp’); Joseph and Emanuel Athias (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 December 1695 and 2 January 1696, p. 61v: ‘In de keuken…een Copere Sabathlamp’); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April, 1661, p. 956: ‘Opt achter-koockentge…Een coopere Sabalamp…een Coopere Canuka lamp’); Sara Namias de Castro (SAA entry no. 334, no. 668, 18 April 1747, Not. J. Barels, p. 7: ‘in de keuken…een Hanuka lamp…[p. 9]…een kist met daarin…koopere saba lamp’); Joseph Baruch (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620,4 February 1697, p. 187: ‘In de Spijskamer…Een Copere Sabatlamp’); Isaac Oeb (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4263, Not. D. van der Broek, 19 May 1695, p. 32/18: ‘in de keuken…een copere sabbath lamp…[33/18v]…micra gedola, de ornamenten van silver tot een sepher tora off boek moses’).

72. For ceremonial objects in salons and halls: Josua de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7490, no. 52, Not. J. van den Ende, 28 September 1708: ‘Op de agterkamer boven de sael…Een Brasi-liaense houte kist met kooper beslaegen…Daerinne…Drie…Thalees, zoo van zijde als kant’); Jacob Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 613, 10 January 1686, p. 20: ‘Op de beste Caemer…een Tallee off kerckkleedt’); Anthony Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 610, 12 February 1685, p. 181v: ‘Int voorhuis…een coopere Sabatslamp’); Samuel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 639, 12 November 1721, p. 122: ‘Op de zaal…in een vaste cas…een Saba lamp); Isaac Oeb (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4263, Not. D. van der Broek, 19 May 1695, p. 31: ‘In de binnenkamer…een dito [silver] sabatlamp’); Joseph and Emanuel Athias (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 December 1695 and 2 January 1696, p. 59v: ‘Binnen-haart…een do [Copere] Joodse Lamp’); Samuel Abarbanel Souza (SAA entry no. 334, no. 726, Not. J. Barels, 4 March 1732, p. 441: ‘op de voorkamer…twee kerkkleeden…[p. 451]…In de onderste Zijdelkamer…ganukalamp’); Daniel Pereyra (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 26, Not. J. Barels, 27 June 1749: ‘In het binnevertreck…een Saba en Hanukalamp’); Mirjam Alvares (for source see above n. 10): ‘Int voorhuys…Een silvere Sabbath Lamp’); Sara Namias de Castro (SAA entry no. 334, no. 668, 18 April 1747, Not. J. Barels, p.11: ‘op de agterkamer een silverde sabalamp betaande uyt ses stucks’ [see on similar Shabbat lamps N. Feuchtwanger-Sarig, ‘Bernard Picart: Image, Text and Material Culture’, in Cohen, Kröger and Schrijver (eds.), Gifts from the Heart, p. 93-95]).

For books in their best rooms: Sara Namias de Castro (SAA entry no. 334, no. 668, 18 April 1747, Not. J. Barels, p.11: ‘op de beste kamer…een oostyndische kist met IJser beslag…daarin een boek Moses met desselfs geborduurde mantel nog een dito met een groen zijde mantel zijnde door de overleedene bij haar codicil gelegateerd aan Moses Salomon Oeb Brandon…[p. 12]…twee


In all they formed a display of religious pride and openness of ethnic-religious identity to the outside world.

With the exception formed by a painting with a Catholic topic owned by Samuel Cardoso,73 many paintings could be registered as derived from the Hebrew Bible.74 This was not a phenomenon exclusively preserved for Dutch Sephardim, though, but also applied to the population at large, in Holland as well as in other parts of Europe at the time: the House of Orange prided itself on the possession of a painting of the Sacrifice of Isaac and of one of Queen Ester.75 Many Dutch citizens owned religious paintings with similar subjects from the Old Testament. Especially Dutch Protestants preferred to distinguish themselves from Catholics by choosing paintings with themes relating to the Old Testament.76

kerkboekjes met silver de slooten’); Samuel Abarbanel Souza (SAA entry no. 334, no. 726, Not. J. Barels, 4 March 1732, p. 443: ‘Op de pronkkamer…eenige Hebreeuwse boeken’); Daniel Pereyra (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1006, no. 26, Not. J. Barels, 27 June 1749: ‘In het binnevertreck…twee gebeede boeken met silverde Slooten…Hebreuse boeken…een Talmut, Een alphes, Een Maaijmo-nides, een Bed Joseph en nog eenige klijne boeken’); Rachel Namias Chamis (SAA entry no. 334, no. 658, 12 August 1738: ‘Op de Pronkkamer twee kerkboeken van schildpat en zilver verguld beslag’); Mirjam Alvares (for source see above n. 10: ‘Int voorhuys…een Casje met elf boeken daer onder een met silvere slooten’); for more prayer books with golden and silver locks: Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 289-290. For prayer books with golden and silver locks and leather bounds in use by non-Jews see Hans van Koolbergen, ‘De materiële cultuur van Weesp en Wees-perkarspel in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’, in Schuurman, De Vries and Van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk, p. 135.

73. Samuel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 265: ‘1 schilderij sijnde een roosekrans’).

74. For paintings with religious themes in the art collection of Dutch Sephardim see Swet-schinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans, p. 308-310; also Nadler, Rembrandt’s Jews, p. 76-82. For more paintings with Jewish themes: Samuel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 264v: ‘In de zijdecamer…een schilderijtje van Abrahams Offerande’); Sara Alvares (SAA entry no. 334, 119a, no. 16, Not. A. Lock, 23 December 1671, p. 486: ‘dos paineis povo de Ysrael…hum painel…o sonho de Yacob’); Simon Corea (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 143r-v: ‘Joseph with his brothers’, ‘the children of Israel through the Red Sea’, ‘Joseph and his brother Jacob’, ‘the Sacrifice of Isaac’, ‘Jacob and Esau’; ‘Moses’, ‘the ladder of Jacob’; ‘Jacob and Rachel’); Isaak Oeb and Hester da Gama (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4263, Not. D. van der Groe, p. 30/17-33/18v, 19 May 1695:‘Tamar and Juda’, ‘David and Abigail’, ‘Moses at the Rock’ and ‘Laban and Rachel’); Salvador Rodrigues (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not. A. Lock, 16 March 1654, p. 506: king Ahasuerus and the prophet Elias).

75. Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen, p. 33 no. 181: ‘un tableau de Hester sur la cheminée’; ibid., p. 650 no. 63, ‘Abrahams Offerande van Duval voor de schoorsteen’.

76. For preferences of members of different Christian denominations for paintings with themes of either Old or New Testament see G.M.C. Pastoor, ‘Bijbelse Historiestukken in particulier bezit’, in Schuurman, De Vries and Van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk, p. 310-315; for preference of the Dutch Protestants for paintings relating to the Old Testament see Ch. Tümpel, ‘De Oudtes-tamentische Historieschilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw’, in idem (ed.), Het Oude Testament in de


Moreover, in an age of messianic ferment and ever close ties to the Jewish community in Eretz Yisra’el, Dutch Sephardim decorated their walls with maps of the Holy Land, views on Jerusalem and the Temple of Salomon.77 Jeronimo Henriques showed off with one painting of the Promised Land and another one displaying Hebrew characters.78 Portuguese Jews also proudly presented the building of their new Esnoga, finished in 1675 as did Pinhas Abarbanel with a ‘Caert vande Joode kerck’ in his hall.79

Often paintings with themes from the Hebrew Bible gained a front-stage location at home with the Dutch Sephardim.80 These paint-ings, however, seldom formed a majority: of the 37 Dutch Sephardi

schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw (Zwolle 1991), p. 8-23; M. Huiskamp, ‘Openbare Lessen in Geschiedenis en Moraal. Het Oude Testament in stadhuizen en andere openbare gebouwen’, in Tümpel (ed.), Het Oude Testament, p. 134-155.

77. Joseph and Emanuel Athias (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 620, 30 December 1695 and2 January 1696, p. 63: ‘een afbeeldsel van Jerusalem’); Salvador Rodrigues (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, Not. A. Lock, 16 March 1654, p. 506: ‘een ditto [schilderij] van den tempel Salomons’); Romeyn de Hooghe must have produced nine etchings of Salomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and several of the Portuguese Synagogue of 1675 (Nadler, Rembrandt’s Jews, p. 59); for depictions of the Temple of Salomon in printed books, also of the Bible, see P. van der Coelen, ‘Thesauri en Tre-zoren. Boeken en bundels met oudtestamentische prenten’, in Tümpel (ed.), Het Oude Testament, p. 185-188.

78. Jeronimo Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 573, 21 July 1647, p. 200). 79. For Pinhas Abarbanel, see SAA entry no. 5072, no. 609, 4 March 1683, p. 266v; for fur-

ther depictions of the Portuguese synagogue in inventories of Dutch Sephardim see Simon Correa (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 145v: ‘op het saeltie…een schilderij met een vergulden lijst sijnde de nieuwe Joode kerck’); David Ximenes Cardoso owned a print of the ‘Joode kerk’ (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 608, p. 182, 11 April 1682: ‘Int Voorhuijs: een prent van de Joode kerck’). Also Moses de Chaves possessed a painting of the ‘Portugueze Jode Kerk’: J. Meyer, The stay of Mozes Haim Luzatto at Amsterdam 1736-1743 (Amsterdam 1947), p. 13; for one – out of three – painting of Emanuel de Witte of the interior of the Portuguese synagogue see T. Levie Bernfeld, ‘Caridade escapa da morte: Legacies to the Poor in Sephardi Wills from Seventeenth Century Amsterdam’, in Jozeph Michman (ed.), Dutch Jewish History, vol. iii (Jerusalem 1993), p. 193-194 n. 33, last will of David Abraham Cardoso concerning the destination of the painting of Emanuel de Witte of the interior of the Portuguese synagogue, which instead of getting a place in the Mahamad of the community, found its way to his friend Jacob Nunes Henriques; see also Kaplan, ‘For Whom did Emanuel de Witte Paint?’, Studia Rosenthaliana 32/2 (1998), p. 133-154.

80. For paintings with religious themes in their halls and best rooms: Simon Corea (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 143: ‘Int Voorhuijs…een

ditto [schilderij] den tempel Salomons…[p. 145v]: op het saeltie…een schilderij met een vergulden leijst sijnde de nieuwe Joode kerck…een cleijn schilderijtje sijnde de tempel salomons’); David Ximenes Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 608, 11 April 1682, p. 182: ‘Int Voorhuijs: een prent van de Joode kerck…[ p. 183] …Op de Beste Caemer…drije Schilderije sijnde Bijbelse historien’); Jacob Lopes Alvin (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 613, 9 January 1686, p. 18v: ‘Op de beste Caemer…vier Bij-belsch historie schilderijen’).


inventories with explicit mention of the subjects of paintings between 1650 and 1700, 16% in average had a religious theme. In one household we found a majority of paintings with a religious character, in several others it reached a high percentage, but not a majority, while mostly percentages between 3 to 14% were attained.81 One century later, in 1759 we could cautiously – we need further proof – see a decline in interest: Moses de Chaves’ art collection consisted of only 10% of paintings with a religious subject. It comes close to the early modern Amsterdam aver-age of 10% calculated for the population at large.82

If we would look at paintings with religious themes and ceremo-nial objects in isolation, it would seem as if the houses of Dutch Sephar-dim looked very Jewish indeed. Yet, Jewish items, as has been demon-strated above, not only formed a minority among the objects and paintings inside, but were indiscriminately alternated with objects and paintings containing non-religious themes. The same pattern existed in non-Jewish Dutch milieus: in fact a Roman Catholic priest from France visiting Holland in 1681 was shocked to see (in a Catholic home) secular and religious items mixed together.83 Similar explicitly negative statements of rabbi’s are unknown to me. Samuel Cardoso was apparently free in his choice to hang the painting of the Sacrifice of Isaac next to two

81. A majority of paintings with religious scenes (66%) was found at home with Simon Corea (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 605, 3 September 1677, p. 143-150); Salvador Rodrigues’ collection of religious scenes came up to 42% (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261A, No. A. Lock, 16 March 1654, p. 505-512); Ishac Oeb’s percentage of paintings with religious themes was 44 (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 4263, Not. D. van der Broek, 19 May 1695, p. 30-31/17r-v) ; in other of the sixteen cases of col-lections with religious themes, no more than 13% of the total had a religious character: see e.g. Samuel Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 264-267v: 4%); Jacob Quisijn (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 11 October 1661, p. 872-879: 6%); Moses and David Juda Leon (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 599, 10 July 1672, p. 232v-6v: 9%); Jeronimo Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 573, 21 July 1647, p. 200-203v: 13%).

82. For the art collection of Moses de Chaves in 1759, see Meyer, The stay of Mozes Haim Luzatto, p. 12-13. Thera Wijsenbeek, conversely, refers to an explicit presence of paintings with themes from the Old Testament among Portuguese Jews in eighteenth-century The Hague, but does not provide figures: Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, ‘Wooncultuur en sociale verschillen’, p. 283. For impressions of the percentages of religious paintings in collections of the general population see Van der Woude, ‘De schilderijenproductie’, p. 249 table 8.13. In Leiden during the first decennium of the seventeenth century, more than half of the paintings had a religious subject, but after 1670, that percentage fell to only 5 à 7%: Fock, ‘Kunstbezit in Leiden in de zeventiende eeuw’, in Schuurman, De Vries and Van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk, p. 283. Paintings with a religious character were among the most expensive pieces: Van der Woude, ‘De schilderijenproductie’, p. 247-248; Pastoor, ‘Bijbelse historiestukken’, in Schuurman, De Vries and Van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk, p. 309.

83. Loughman and Montias, Public and Private Spaces, p. 41, 49, 66-69.


paintings of a courting couple (‘vrijerij’) and that of a landscape in the most representative part of his house.84 Moses Gabay Isidero put a paint-ing of Salomon next to landscape, still life and five senses paintings, while at Jacob Lopes Alvin’s home genre, religious and history paint-ings lived peacefully together, front-stage.85

Therefore, material expression of Jewish identity, however impor-tant to Dutch Sephardim, added only an extra dimension to a home radiating a cosmopolitan and Iberian atmosphere.

Towards Material Adjustment to Dutch Culture?

So if material culture of Dutch Sephardim was deeply immersed into Iberian, southern European and international culture, with Jewish inno-vations and additions, was not there anything Dutch about it and do we see Dutch Sephardim follow trends of time and place?

If we look at Dutch interior of the period, especially at that of the Dutch elite with whom the richer Sephardim liked to be equated with, it was, in most cases, equally internationally oriented and lavishly furnished. In this respect Sephardi interior of the well-to-do fitted in very well with that of the Dutch bourgeoisie. Perhaps seventeenth-century Sephardi inte-rior looked a bit more aristocratic and flamboyant than that of the Dutch although by the middle of the seventeenth century Dutch austerity had made place for a more luxurious and extravagant way of life.86

And what else was ‘Dutch’ about the material culture of Sephardim? Was it the convincing presence of Delft porcelain and ceramics that increasingly came to replace Portuguese majolica?87 In 1718 Abraham

84. SAA entry no. 5072, no. 576, 25 October 1651, p. 264v. 85. For Moses Gabay Isidero: SAA entry no. 5072, no. 607, 26 March 1680, p. 199; for Jacob

Lopes Alvin: SAA entry no. 5072, no. 613, 9 January 1686, p. 17r-v. 86. For the growth in consumption in early modern Europe, including the Dutch Republic,

see A. Schuurman, ‘Aards Geluk. Consumptie en de moderne samenleving’, in Schuurman, De Vries and Van der Woude (eds), Aards Geluk, p. 13-15; see also Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 84.

87. For the use of Delft porcelain see Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 110-111; among Dutch Sephardim e.g. Isaac Cardose (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 6974, Not. C. van Loon, 20 March 1702, p. 269: ‘tien delfs porceleyne schotels soo heel als gebroken’); David Belmonte Junior (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 1008, Not. J. Barels, 16 September 1749: ‘In de keuken…Eenige potten en pannen delfs aardewerk’); Mordecai Semah Aboab (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 13543, Not. D. Geniets, 28 August 1755, p. 2: ‘In de binnekamer…een wijnig Delfs aardewerk…[p. 2v]…in de Keuken…een Rekje met delfts aardewerk’); Jacob de Silva Soliz (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 437, 283, 2 November 1740:


Henriques Juliao alias Diego Diaz del Campo indeed, had enough of his Portuguese majolica and put it in a chest up in the attic; from now on he preferred Delft for his best room.88 The presence of Dutch grammar books and dictionaries, points at a growing readiness and need to under-stand Dutch language and culture.89 To arm themselves against the cold atmosphere in the homes and on the floors, Dutch Sephardim used the typical Dutch ‘stoof’ (an object to heat the feet)90 while the shape of many a ceremonial object produced on Dutch soil betrayed Dutch design.91 Moreover, Dutch Sephardim seemed to get accustomed and started to enjoy Dutch landscape through paintings with views on the rivers Amstel or Rhine hung on prominent places in their interior.92 Was all this an indication of happy adjustment to the new environment?

Conclusion

If objects become a mirror of the self, what can be said of material culture of Dutch Sephardim in the early modern period? Yes, they represented a migrant society par excellence. Often, migrants export their culture,

‘Voor de schoorsteen…6 delftse bordjes…[p. 283v]…op de agterkamer…2 rekken met 10 delfse borden en do schoteltjes’); Ribca Henriques Faro (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 998, Not. J. Barels, 17 November 1740: ‘een delffs stel met eenige schotels’); Sara Barzilay (SAA entry no. 5073, no. 999,11 December 1741: ‘Eenig Delfs Aardewerk’); Rachel Brandon (SAA entry no. 5075. no. 2941B, Not. P. Padthuysen, 25 August 1701, p. 994: ‘Opde opkamer…een partije delfs aerdewerk’); Rachel de Prado (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 3369, Not. J. van den Ende, 17 January 1706, p. 391: ‘Een partijtje gebrooken porcelijn en delfs aerdewerck’); Ester Rocamora (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 7545, Not. J. van Vilekens, 26 May 1721: ‘In het kantoortje…Eenig delfs Aerdewerk…in de keuken…Eenigh delfs aerdewerk van schotels, borden, potten en pannen’).

88. SAA entry no. 5072, no. 636, 20 September 1718, p. 187: ‘Op de zaal…een stel van 3e Delft …[p. 193]…op de zolder…een kist met portugaals aardewerk soheel alsgebroke’.

89. Judith Rodrigues Carrion (SAA entry no. 334, no. 119bb, 14 June 1739, p. 793: ‘1 vocabol framengo’); see also the library of Jacob Abenhacar (SAA entry no. 334, no. 610, Not. Geniets, 9 October 1772: ‘Dictionario hebraico latin Espanhol & Hollandes por Benjamin da Serra’); Rachel Medina Chamis wrote her notes in the household book in Portuguese and in Dutch (SAA entry no. 334, no. 658, 1728-39 household booklet).

90. For a Dutch ‘stoof’, Jacob de Silva Soliz (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 659, 2 November 1740, p. 283v: ‘op de agterkamer…1 stoof’); for the use of the ‘stoof’ in Dutch society, see Fock, ‘1600-1650’, p. 43.

91. Cohen, Kröger and Schrijver (eds), Gifts from the Heart, p. 28: silver finials, Amsterdam 1773.

92. Jeronimo Henriques (SAA entry no. 5072, no. 573, 21 July 1647, p. 210: ‘In de Binnecamer…1 schilderij van de Reviere vande Amstel voorde schoorsteen’); Jean Cardoso (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April, 1661, p. 973, ‘Op de hofsteede: Een Caert van den Rijn’).


carry it over and continue it elsewhere. As time passes by, the strength of the old culture slowly weakens, while a slow process of adjustment to the new environment takes place, keeping basic elements of the old culture alive.93 It is true for past and present.94 A Dutch merchant living in sev-enteenth-century Moscow arranged his house according to Dutch style with objects taken along from the Dutch Republic.95 In the same way, an officer of the Dutch West India Company lived on the ‘Goudkust’ in Africa in familiar Dutch (and international) settings.96

In general, Dutch Sephardim of the early modern period still seem to be heavily immersed in the Iberian culture they originated from. If means allowed, they carried to their new place of refuge, many objects from the Iberian peninsula or Southern Netherlands, sent them ahead, or ordered them later on, once they got comfortably settled in Holland. Apparently it was emotionally important to them to be surrounded by objects from their country of origin as was the case with other immigrant families in the Republic.97 Being proud and often well-integrated inhab-itants of the Iberian empire, many among them had already vied to be equated with its nobility and symbols and desired to continue a similar life style in Holland.98 The ancestry and status of the family was also captured by paintings of loved ones, taken along or portrayed in the Dutch Republic memorizing a glorified past or present.

93. H. Gans, ‘Symbolic Ethnicity and Symbolic Religiosity: Towards a Comparison of Eth-nic and Religious Acculturation’, Ethnic and Religious Studies 17/4 (October 1994), p. 577-592.

94. H. Dibbits, ‘Nieuw maar vertrouwd. Migranteninterieurs, sociale klasse en etniciteit’, Sociologie 1/2 (2005), p. 149.

95. Pijzel-Dommisse, ‘1700-1750’, p. 224. 96. Fock, ‘1650-1700’, p. 150. 97. The merchant family Bartolotti, for example, owned an Italian ‘ledikant’ (Fock ‘1600-

1650’, p. 40). 98. Aristocratic pretensions to be equated with the Spanish nobility can be proven through

the presence of the book titled Tractatus de hispaniorum nobilitate located in Jean Cardoso’s library (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 970). Moreover, coat of arms could be found engraved on many objects, books (ceremonial or not) and even on tombstones of Dutch Sephardim: Jean Cardoso for example owned a silver plate with his coat of arms (SAA entry no. 5075, no. 2261B, Not. A. Lock, 12 April 1661, p. 965); Joseph Abendana Pestano apparently possessed a so-called wapenbord in a black frame which was hanging in the entry hall (‘Voorhuijs’): SAA entry no. 5072, no. 614, 29 September 1688, p. 147v; see also the de Pinto Passover plate provided with the family’s coat of arms (collection Jewish Museum Amsterdam); for coat of arms embroidered into Portuguese talitot see Swetschinski, Orphan Objects, p. 135-149; for coat of arms engraved on Sephardi tombstones at the Portuguese cemetery in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, see L.A. Vega, The Beth Haim of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (Assen 1979), p. 33, 35, 41, 42, 44, 47.


Besides, as modern Europeans they were at home in the world of history, philosophy and classics as their libraries and paintings on the wall testified, on the peninsula as much as in the Dutch Republic. At home, they took pride in the possession of globes or maps showing parts of world they often had visited in person. Moreover, they acquired abroad or purchased in Amsterdam exotic items. In this respect rich Dutch Sephardim followed fashionable trends of the higher bourgeoisie and aristocracy of early modern Europe.

Their identity, multifaceted as it already was, took new turns upon arrival in the Dutch Republic: openly adhering to Judaism gave a new dimension to their identity, which in most cases was translated into a proud show of beautiful artifacts, including ceremonial objects, made of silver and gold, of silk or other precious materials. As ‘New Jews’, pictures with biblical themes, views on the Holy Land and scenes of the new Esnoga-building were proudly added to their often large collections of landscape, allegory, mythology, still life and genre paintings. An impressive collection of political and family portraiture completed their collection. The rela-tion of pictures with religious themes and those with other subjects does not much deviate of that found in non-Jewish settings.

The collection of the first generation was carefully transmitted to the next one, while Dutch influences only slowly trickled in, perhaps because immigration from the Iberian Peninsula continued for almost 150 years. Moreover, Dutch Sephardim were in continuous contact with their peers in Spain and Portugal in terms of trade relations and family connections. Therefore, the early modern culture that materialized among Dutch Sephardim was diversified and showed a wide spectrum of often conflicting influences all along the early modern period, with which it was unique in the world to which they belonged, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.

Matters Matter, Material Culture of Dutch Sephardim ( 1600-1750)

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