Monday, July 11, 2016

Wertheimpark Memorial Fountain

Created in 1812, Wertheimpark was Amsterdam’s first park. It gets its name from the Dutch Jewish philanthropist A. C. Wertheim. From outside the gates of the park, one immediately sees a large fountain made in 1898, one year after Wertheim’s death, to memorialize the man who did so much for Jewish culture and amateur drama in the city. Jonas Ingenohl designed this fountain.
Left: Full view of the fountain. Park visitors relax and converse at the fountain as dogs play. Right: A. C. Wertheim memorialized on the fountain’s pillar. Ingenohl was a member of the old guard of architecture in a time period when younger architects sought to revive and renew design principals. The Neoclassicism of the early 1800s comes through clearly in his fountain design, adorned with a Corinthian central column atop the center and Doric ones along the base. Wertheim’s image graces the central Corinthian column, making the fountain itself a memorial. Along the disc-shaped basin from which water spouts, the designer placed Wertheim’s virtues: der armen hulp (helper of the poor), der zwakken staf (officer of the weak), der menschen vriend (man’s friend), een wekstem tot leven (a voice that evokes life), den kunst’naar tot steun (supporter of artists), den tragen tot spoorslag (impetus for the sluggish), door stad en land betreurd (mourned over by city and country) (translation from by Iamsterdam.com). The concept of remembering a man for his great deeds is a worthy one. Often in Amsterdam, there are statues devoted to the individuals who advanced the city, but the choice of a fountain in a public park (named after his death in his honor) for Wertheim seems more fitting: public parks and fountains are gifts for the masses, so even in death and memorial, Wertheim continues in his role as der armen hulp, der zwakken staf, and der menschen vriend. The fountain provides resting places along the base. Water shoots out of small holes in the upper basin. The falling of water is soothing—the laminar flow is steady so water does not get visitors wet by bouncing out of the fountain, and it is quiet enough for one to easily hold a conversation. Moreover, the fountain is quite clean, save some stray leaves from surrounding trees that have fallen in it. People chat. Dogs occasional hop in the water to cool off.

Left: Helper of the poor (der aremn hulp) inscribed in the fountain. The slow stream of water seen from the fountain as a man sits at the fountain. Marble base and columns supporting the basin are in clear view. Right: Dog exiting the fountain as another plays nearby. We see the water is clear and clean, with just some leaves scattered in it. In terms of the physical design of the fountain too, the work serves the public well. The fountain has a sturdy design that suggests strength and reassurance. The basin beneath the central column houses a larger central piece of marble that holds the water pump of the fountain in it and also supports the above basin. While this marble alone would be sufficient, Ingenohl chose to put in extra supporting columns around the periphery. The redundancy of columns and a central marble base creates a sense of reassurance; with the bulkiness of the central marble “caged” in columns, onlookers feel that the fountain is protected. These features add up to a sensibility of strength that add to an ambience of safety in the park at large. The fine details of the fountain align with Wertheim’s values of een wekstem tot leven and den kunst’naar tot steun. Creating the fountain was an act that literally supported an artist in the architect Ingenohl. And the sculpture evokes life in its details. The curves of the base marble are thigh-like. The running streams of water evoke a living flow. And the central column’s top has a bud-like cupola that reminding viewers of a nascent life. Topping the Corinthian column too are faces jutting out. These features, combined with the sound of the soothing running water evoke a sense of life to the fountain.
Top of the central column of the fountain.The tip of the bowl-like structure looks like a budding plant and the column has faces jutting out of it. From the fountain, visitors can see the botanical garden, trees that have grown large over hundreds of years, old Amsterdam houses across a canal, and an Auschwitz memorial. On the whole, these surroundings somehow feel appropriate with the fountain. It is difficult to place, but the botanical garden building and houses feel structurally similar to the fountain. Perhaps it is the vertical lines of the columns and falling water and the hexagonal collection basin that have a geometric similarity to the houses, which are also tall, thin, and angular. The houses near Wertheimpark are older buildings, and so the Neoclassicism of the fountain feels of the right age with those surroundings. The one aspect that feels at odds in the surroundings is the Auschwitz memorial. A modern, chilling glass structure dealing with the heavy topic of the concentration camp, the memorial has a different, melancholy atmosphere surrounding it. At perhaps 50 meters away from the fountain, it is an abrupt transition from praising memorial to mourning. The fact that Wertheim was a Jew himself might make the transition all the more stark: Amsterdam’s oldest park is named after a Jewish philanthropist who did so much for the city, and yet less than 50 years after his death, the city was unable to protect a large portion of its civilians, many of whom had done so much to contribute to the culture of the city. In this sense, it makes the Auschwitz memorial even more powerful that the transition from calm to chilling of two aspects of Jewish history in the city are so stark. View of the Wertheim Fountain from afar within the park. Plush, old trees surround the fountain. Just behind the trees, one can see bits of Amsterdam houses across the canal. Overall, Wertheimpark’s memorial fountain to A. C. Wertheim is a fitting tribute to the man. It is in many ways a living example of the man’s values, a structure of service to Amsterdam that people (and dogs) all still use extensively. The surrounding buildings and trees make the fountain a relaxing place, and the heavy repetition of vertical lines in the fountain structure and general Neoclassical design make the fountain feel at home in its location at the park. Even the stark contrast in ambience between the fountain and the Auschwitz memorial feels appropriate. Ingenohl’s design and attention to detail in the fountain support the values that Wertheim lived in his life and which are inscribed in the fountain. Wertheimpark’s fountain is a wonderful memorial and is well worth visiting.

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