Amsterdam Palace

Ok, Amsterdam palace is pretty cool. For a historic building, it truly was a piece of art. The main chamber is 10 stories high with the titan of murals decorating the ceiling, and all kind of enormous sculptures adorning the room. My favorite in the main chamber is one of Lady Justice sitting tall. Kept heavily under her feet are King Midas, ass-ears sprouting from the side of his head, and an old lady with snakes for hair under her other foot. Nonchalantly sitting to Justice’s right is Death, sighing as if bored. To the left of her, sits Lady Punishment wielding a device known as a “knee-breaker”. Sculptures and paintings of a symbolic nature such as these fill Amsterdam’s Palace.

In the chamber where death sentences were once carried out, 3 biblical scenes are inscribed in the wall. In one, a man is having his eye stabbed out to save his son from the same punishment. In another, an executioner dutifully kills his son in the line of duty. The third scene depicts a judge settling a child custody dispute between two women by ordering the child to be split in half.

In the room where a person would go to declare bankruptcy, above the door Iccerous is depicted, wax wings trailing him as he plunges to his death. Yet another sculpture depicts an old man taking a bite out of a baby. It is meant to show how age feeds off of youth.

My favorite sculture in the building, however, was of a dog standing guard over an immobile person, presumably his dead master. Oddly enough, the scene is mean to represent fidelity.