Another great little museum in Amsterdam, Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) is tucked away in the midst of Amsterdam’s Red Light District. It represents one of the best remaining examples of a hidden Catholic church dating from the time of the Dutch Reformation. It has been a while since I last visited there so on a bright Sunday in January, Robin and I walked over for a visit.
One major change since the last time I visited was that they moved the entrance to the museum into a building across the street from the buildings containing the church. This change allowed all the rooms in the original buildings to be renovated to their period style. Visitors now access the museum through tunnels under the street.
The other aspect of the museum that caught my attention was the lighting. With the progress in LED light technology, I could see how the museum laid out its lighting in a way that probably matched the lighting levels in the 1600’s. As you can see in the photograph above, the main windows of the buildings face north so the rooms received some nice reflected light on this short but sunny January day. However the small number of lighting fixtures, lit in a way to represent candles, showed that even then the overall light levels were much lower than what we would find acceptable today. A subtle aspect in the museum design, but a very effective one.
Camera: Sony DSC-RX100
Lens: Zeiss 18-100mm f/1.8-4.9
Focal Length: 14.7 mm
Exposure: 1/60 sec at f/2.8
ISO Speed Rating: ISO 800
