Public domain
Staff of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The elderly statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was supposed to have used one of these walking sticks to support himself as he climbed the scaffold on May 13, 1619, to be beheaded. He had been condemned to death after a political trial. In the previous twenty years, he had been one of the driving forces in the young Dutch Republic. The sticks were preserved as relics. In 1657 Vondel wrote a moving poem about one of them.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own descriptionCredit lineStok van Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. 1600 - 1615. anonymous. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.
