The Council Chamber in Amsterdam Town Hall

The Council Chamber in Amsterdam Town Hall
The Council Chamber in Amsterdam Town Hall
Artist	Pieter de Hooch
Year	c. 1663–1665
Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	112.5 cm × 99 cm (44.3 in × 39 in)
Location	Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

The Council Chamber in Amsterdam Town Hall (c. 1663–1665) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch. It is held in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in Madrid.

The painting was documented by

Vondel. This shows that the scene depicted is the Burgomaster's room in the Amsterdam Town Hall. The dog in the foreground was first placed to the left instead of to the right of the centre. The picture is dark in tone, but still very good. Canvas, 41 inches by 30 inches. Now in the Von Stackelberg collection, in Faehna, Esthonia.^[1]

The Burgomaster's Room described here is one of two mayors' rooms on the Dam Square side of the Royal Palace of Amsterdam (the former city hall). The painting shows a chimneypiece in the larger of these two rooms. At the back in the left doorway is a fantasized version of the doorway to the adjoining mayors' room that in fact overlooks the tribunal, not the outdoors. Today a carpet covers most of the marble floor.

View of the mayors' room with the doorway to the adjoining mayors' room and the left-hand side of the hearth depicted in the painting
View of the mayors' room with the right-hand side of the hearth depicted in the painting
Fabritius and Pyrrhus, Ferdinand Bol

De Hooch made several paintings with scenes of the interior of the City Hall:

Musical Party in a Hall
Going for a Walk in the Amsterdam Town Hall
Portrait of a family playing music, though not situated in the City Hall, shows the same sculpted hearth on the left
Card Players in an Opulent Interior, shows the hearth on the left and the windows, but has been given a wall on the right (in fact the Mayors-room has two hearths facing each other)