FRIDAY,OCTOBER 2, 2020 NEW YORK IS A DUTCH CITY PRESENTATION

By admin

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2 ,  2020

The

172nd  Edition

From Our Archives

NEW YORK

IS A

DUTCH CITY

THE ART OF

LEN TANTILLO

SPECIAL PROGRAM

 NEW AMSTERDAM HISTORY CENTER

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 

6 PM EST

A CONVERSATION WITH

Author
Russell Shorto 
 
and
 
Architectural Historian
Barry Lewis

Moderated by  

Robert Snyder
Manhattan Borough Historian

Join us online for a lively discussion of the enduring legacy of the 40-year Dutch rule of New York City, 1624-1664.

Shorto and Lewis will trade observations about how our democratic institutions, rule of law, hyphenated nationality, entrepreneurial spirit, multiculturalism, and vocabulary are indebted to our Dutch origins.

Conversation will be pre-recorded,
with a Live Q+A to follow

Reservations Are Required
a Zoom link and password will be emailed to
registered participants the day before the event.

To Order tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-york-is-a-dutch-city-an-online-conversation-tickets-116168092893

ADMISSION: $15
Free for Patrons, Students and New York City Tour Guides

LEN TANTILLO, ARTIST

Len Tantillo (b. 1946 – ) is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Tantillo is a licensed architect who left the field of architecture in 1986, to pursue a career in the fine art of historical and marine painting. Since that time, his work has appeared internationally in exhibitions, publications and film documentaries. He is the author of four books, and the recipient of two honorary degrees. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists. His work is included in the collections of the Fenimore Art Museum, the Minnesota Museum of Marine Art, numerous historical societies, and corporate and private collections in the USA and abroad. In 2004 he was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create a painting depicting the Daniel Winne house as it may have appeared in 1755. He has produced over 300 paintings and drawings of New York State history. In 2016 he was elected a Fellow of the New York Academy of History.

17TH CENTURY

Fort Amsterdam

Arent Van Curler’s bark passes Fort Amsterdam, Manhattan, 1650

Fort Amsterdam had a long and peculiar history. In 1626, the Dutch West India Company directed Kryn Fredericksen to construct a fort at the tip of Manhattan Island. Fredericksen was instructed to build a substantial stone fortification following the specifications of the prototypical 17th century Dutch design.  This design took many years to complete. Along the way the fort underwent numerous alterations. The painting depicts this fort as it may have appeared in its final iteration under English control as a stone structure.

Curiosity of the Magua

Mohawk warriors approach the ship of Arent Van Curler, 1650

This is the second in a series of paintings which depicts the bark of Arent Van Curler. The setting is the summer of 1650, looking southeast between Curler Island and Hill House Island, about 6 miles north of Fort Orange (Albany , New York). The Hudson River is in the background. Van Curler is approaching his farm, located on what today is referred to as Schuyler Flatts in the Town of Colonie (Menands , New York). At that time Van Curler was living on the eastern edge of Iroquois territory. There are two horses on deck that Van Curler purchased to add to his livestock. Mohawk warriors in elm bark canoes are making their way out to Van Curler’s ship to investigate his unusual cargo. “Magua” was the seventeenth century term used by the Dutch for the Mohawk people. Although the Mohawk were curious about horses neither they or any other tribe of the Iroquois nation were ever interested enough to actually trade for them

Manhattan, 1660

A view of Dutch Manhattan from Governor’s Island, circa 1660 Sometime around 1670, a surveyor from Belgium named Jacques Cortelyou created a birdseye view of Manhattan. His map provides us with the only detailed contemporary image of New York City as the Dutch community of New Amsterdam. Cortelyou’s drawing, commonly referred to as the “Costello Plan,” survives to this day in a museum in Florence, Italy. The first challenge Tantillo faced was how to correct the Costello Plan to get it to dimensionally agree with the actual scale and street layout of modern Manhattan. He accomplished this by locating an early survey of the city made with precision instruments. Tantillo used a detailed survey of lower Manhattan produced in the late 1890s. This scaled site map was very well drawn and contained numerous property line measurements. His hope was that some of the street patterns of Dutch Manhattan had survived and would be visible in the latter map. Tantillo was pleased to discover that most of what he was looking for was there. Once the Costello Plan was redrawn to scale, Tantillo had a realistic base on which to set adjusted property lines and buildings. It’s important to note that a plan is just a footprint of an object. No matter how carefully crafted and researched this two-dimensional representation may be, problems instantly present themselves when speculative buildings emerge from the ground plane. Relying on many years of architectural experience, Tantillo tried to imagine what influences the environment and the individual resident would have on the overall look of a period structure. Although much of the visualizing process is conjectural, his decisions are based on closely examined factual data, no matter how fragmentary.

A View of Fort Orange, 1652

The Dutch merchant ship “Flower of Gelderland” at anchor,1652

By the 1650’s the Dutch settlement of Fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck had evolved into a thriving community of great diversity. What began as a simple fur trading outpost in 1614, now included agricultural development, lumber production, brick-making, brewing, and shipbuilding. New immigrant colonists mostly from the Netherlands were arriving on a regular basis. This painting features the arrival of the ship, Flower of Gelderland. Fort Orange and the houses of Beverwyck are seen in the right background. The arrival of large merchant ships in 17th century Albany was a rare occasion and always a cause for celebration and anticipation of news from home.

The Ferry

Dutch settlers cross the Hudson River near Fort Orange, 1643

FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

SEND YOUR ENTRY TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WIN A KIOSK TRINKET

THURSDAY  PHOTO  OF THE DAY

TROLLEY AT QUEENS PLAZA 1950’S
CLARA BELLA WAS THE FIRST TO GET IT RIGHT!

CLARIFICATION
WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER.
ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE. WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM. WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,.PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU

EDITORIAL

Our friends at the New Amsterdam History Center have sent us information on the upcoming program on October 6th. Russell Shorto and Barry Lewis are wonderful speakers and it will be a great presentation. To register, see the link above.

Enjoy the art of Len Tantillo. There are many more images on his website for you to study.

The website is:http://lftantillo.com/

Judith Berdy

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff
Roosevelt Island Historical SocietyIMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT

LEN TANTILLO ART (C)

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2020 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com