C. Muysken (1843-1922) Around 1875, a new style, the Neo-Renaissance, emerged alongside Neoclassicism and Neo-Gothicism. One of the earliest examples of neo-renaissance architecture is the Oud Wassenaar castle designed by Constantijn Muysken in 1876. During this period, Muysken took an active place in the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst. This society played an important role in Dutch architecture from its founding in 1842. The lack of a homegrown architectural style, bad taste and poor education had been the main motives for the founding of the Society. Muysken was president of this society from 1879 to 1892 and during this period was confronted with the discussion surrounding the true national architectural style. P.J.H. Cuypers and Muysken took an important role in this. They approached the Neo-Renaissance in different ways which made them diametrically opposed in their views. The first volume of the 1881 Bouwkundig Tijdschrift showed these divergent views side by side. The work of Muysken was shown next to that of P.J.H. Cuypers. For Muysken, the painterly effect of a building was paramount and he was guided by the building's surroundings and his feelings. In his designs, he combined the formal language of the Dutch Renaissance with elements of Italian Renaissance architecture. With P.J.H. Cuypers, the construction was paramount. The question arose which variant of the Neo-Renaissance could be seen as a true example of a national architectural style and what share Muysken had had in it. Of great importance for the development of a national architectural style was the Delft professor of architecture, Eugen Gugel. Gugel developed the so-called Delft Renaissance style, which was based on the Italian Renaissance and the Mannerist Dutch Renaissance of around 1600. In addition to this, Muysken was also inspired by his trip to northern Italy. He incorporated his affection for Italian Renaissance architecture into some of his villas and interior designs. The architect Constantijn Muysken was born in Hillegom on October 19, 1843. He grew up in a prosperous family where his father, Antoine Charles Muysken was a notary and later the mayor of Hillegom. Constantijn Muysken completed his primary and secondary schooling in Hillegom and in 1861 began his studies at the Polytechnic School in Delft. In 1865 he continued his studies in Hannover at the Polytechnic School where he took his exam and graduated in 1867. Muysken returned to the Netherlands after his studies, where he was attached to the Polytechnic School in Delft until 1872, as assistant to the teacher G. Morre. (1) In the period 1874-1875 Muysken made a "grand tour" of northern Italy where he was inspired by Renaissance architecture and recorded a number of buildings, details and interiors in a sketchbook. After this period, Muysken was actively involved in the design and furnishing of the Dutch pavilion at the World's Fair in Philadelphia (1876). In addition to this World's Fair, Muysken also participated in the Applied Arts Exhibition in Amsterdam (1877) and the International Colonial and Export Trade Exhibition in Amsterdam (1884). A favorite building type of Muysken was the villa. Some examples include the Oud Wassenaar castle, the Uytenbosch estate in Baarn, a villa for the Mispelblom Beijer family in Zutphen, the Elswout and Duinlust estates in Overveen and a villa for Mr. Staring in Dordrecht. Muysken also made designs for two society buildings; the Grote Sociëteit in Arnhem and the society building of the Rotterdam Zoo. He also built an office for the banker Boussevain in Amsterdam and the office cum shopping complex "Plan C" in Rotterdam. Muysken, in collaboration with the architect De Kruyff, provided a design for a new stock exchange building in Amsterdam. In addition to these building types, Muysken was also concerned with religious buildings. He produced a design for the church tower in Aalsmeer and a design for the Grote Kerk in Hoorn. Muysken was also active as an interior designer. He made designs for interior paneling, fireplaces, mirrors, tile tableaux, wallpaper and stained glass. Mr. Simon van Gijn commissioned him to redesign part of his monumental residence in Dordrecht. He also made designs for the interiors of the Oud Wassenaar castle, the Elswout and Duinlust estates, the Uytenbosch estate and Mr. Staring's villa in Dordrecht. He was also chairman of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst. He held this position from 1879 to 1888 and from 1889 to 1892. Within the Society, he was a member of the jury for several competitions and gave advice on various restorations. From 1879 to 1881 Muysken and De Kruyff worked together at the same address in Amsterdam on the Stadhouderskade. (2) In 1881 Muysken married E.B. van Deurs; he became the father of a daughter Ada in 1883. The couple moved to a stately mansion on the Sarphatikade in Amsterdam in 1887. During this period, Muysken was a member of the Amsterdam city council in addition to his chairmanship of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst. In 1890 Muysken built his own house on Bosstraat in Baarn and in 1891 the Muysken family moved into it. In Baarn, Muysken continued his career as an architect. He also became chairman of the local beauty committee. On February 11, 1922, Muysken died at the age of 81 at the villa "Intimis" in Baarn, where his daughter Ada lived. He was remembered and buried at the General Cemetery in Baarn. Education and apprenticeship In 1861, Muysken began his studies at the Polytechnic School in Delft. In his fourth year of study, the architect E. Gugel became a professor in Delft; Muysken became one of his students. (3) It is obvious that in his student days Muysken was confronted by the ideas Gugel had written in his book History of architectural styles. (4) Since Gugel was an advocate of the Greek and Gothic architectural style, it is possible that Muysken therefore continued his studies at the Polytechnic School in Hanover in 1865. Here he attended only the last two courses because he had already laid the foundation of his education in Delft. After two years, Muysken graduated and returned to the Netherlands. During this period Muysken looked back on his apprenticeship in Hanover and wrote an article about his impressions of architecture in this city. (5) About the choice to study in this city he wrote: "One gives preference to that country which corresponds most closely to ours; only then can one fruitfully arrive at comparisons and conclusions". (6) The Polytechnic School in Hanover seemed to be popular with Dutch architects at the time because it was cheaper than Delft. During his education in Hanover, C. W. Hase was the teacher who impressed him most. Muysken saw Hase as a virtuoso at building with brick and took Hase's architectural theory as a starting point for his own work. These views are discussed later in this essay. In the period 1867-1872, Muysken served as assistant to teacher G. Morre at the Polytechnic School in Delft. The reports for the course years 1869/1870 and 1871/1872 published in the Delfsche Studenten Almanak report on Muysken's work as assistant. (7) Upon Muysken's departure, the willingness with which he was helpful in the drawing classes was praised. In 1874 Muysken began an important part of his apprenticeship. He traveled to northern Italy during this period. During this `grand tour' he made several studies of renowned Italian Renaissance buildings. In Mantua, for example, Muysken made sketches of the ceiling of a cabinet in the Palazzo del The and also sketched the vaults of the Corte Reale. About his stay in Mantua, Muysken wrote that `for interior decoration, in Mantua there was an inexhaustible source of work'. In Milan, he made a drawing of caryatids and a detail of a Corinthian column of the S. Celso. In Bologna, Muysken drew a gate of a chapel in the I. Petronia, and in Rome he made drawings of windows and portals of Palazzo Rospiglosi and Palazzo Marfinni, among others. Once returned to the Netherlands, Muysken applied these building elements from the Italian Renaissance in his own designs. Muysken and the Dutch Neo-Renaissance Until about 1845, neoclassicism was the all-important architectural style, used for both government buildings and churches. In the 1930s, however, a new architectural style was introduced in the Netherlands: neo-Gothicism. Around 1875, there was a growing need for buildings that reflected our own history. The architecture of the early Golden Age was taken as an example. The Old Dutch brick and masonry, stepped gables, lintels and keystones at the arches and bars above the windows determined the architectural image. Of great importance for this development was, among others, the professor, also Muysken's teacher, Eugen Gugel. Gugel was an advocate of the so-called Delft Renaissance style, which was based on the Italian Renaissance and the Mannerist Dutch Renaissance of around 1600. (8) Gugel published his view of architectural styles in the past in 1869 in the work The History of Architectural Styles. In it, Gugel expresses his admiration for Greek and Gothic architecture. (9) In the period in which Muysken was working, fierce discussions arose as a result of this search for a national architectural style. These discussions manifested themselves around two main architectural movements. The text with which Muysken presented his design for Oud Wassenaar Castle in 1881 was an important starting point of this discussion. (10) Muysken's design was shown alongside a design by P.J.H. Cuypers. Cuypers made a design for the director's residence that was part of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum complex. With Muysken, the painterly effect was paramount. The term `painting effect' referred to the architectural composition in which, often based on an informal, irregular floor plan, through an alternation of building volumes and architectural elements, a variety of visual impressions was intended. (11) An important recurring painterly element in Muysken's oeuvre is the stair tower that defines the silhouette of a building. In addition to the silhouette, color distribution played an important role in Muysken's work. The `silhouette had to become one with that of the surrounding foliage, the color had to be harmonious with that of the landscape'. (12) Cuypers, on the contrary, tried to approach the design of his designs rationally. He worked from the constructive system of Gothic architecture. Decorative parts, according to him, were subordinate to the construction. The architecture of P.J.H. Cuypers was considered too medieval and Catholic and not Dutch enough. The discussion was characterized by these divergent views, and a division emerged within the Dutch architectural world as a result. In general, it can be assumed that due to the great influence of De Stuers, a high-ranking official at the Interior, and Cuypers on the building activity of the central government, the architects working for the central government built in the style of Cuypers. The architects who were employed by local government or private bodies like Muysken adopted Gugel's Mannerist example and worked in the Dutch Neo-Renaissance style. Muysken was inspired not only by Gugel but also by his professor C.W. Hase at the Polytechnic School in Hanover. In the article; `The city of Hanover and its Architecture, compared with that of the Netherlands', Muysken writes about his conception of architecture. (13) He writes that the teacher C. W. Hase had impressed him most because he was a virtuoso in brick building. Muysken stated besides the importance of the picturesque effect also the Characteristic of Hase's building style is the non-plastering of the facades and choosing a starting point from `local' Gothic examples. Muysken writes the following about Gothic architecture: `He is the style born of construction, he shows what he is and hides nothing behind a shroud of plaster'. (14) The custom of hiding construction behind plaster in villas became popular from the beginning of the century; however, Muysken rejected it. According to Muysken, the national building element should not be hidden away behind a layer of plaster and terracotta ornaments, but the nature of the material should be shown. In the report Muysken published in 1881 on the construction of the Oud Wassenaar castle, he emphasized his view of architecture. (15) Muysken considered that he had designed a modern building in accordance with the requirements of the time. By the designation castle, Muysken did not wish to refer specifically to the Middle Ages, but rather to the national past in general. He explicitly emphasized that the castle was neither executed in the `Oud Dutch' style nor was it Gothic. Associations and commissions In 1879, C. Muysken was elected president of the Society for the Advancement of Architecture. This event marked a new period in the history of the Netherlands' oldest architectural society. (16) The choice of Muysken as president took place at the end of the `70s. Under Muysken, the Society came to a number of policy changes, which caused it to grow. One of these changes was that the Society became more in the nature of an interest group. Among other things, the Society was to stand up more forcefully for architects who were victims of government protection. One of the innovations in the Society's policy was the publication of a new journal, the Bouwkundig Weekblad. This magazine paid attention to current events and polemics within the building industry. The Bouwkundig Weekblad served as the replacement for the irregularly published magazine Bouwkundige Bijdragen. From 1881, the Bouwkundig Weekblad was transformed into the Bouwkundig Tijdschrift. Other important things that came about during Muysken's presidency was the founding of a building of its own for the Society. On May 20, 1885, the building on Marnixstraat in Amsterdam was festively opened by Muysken. The purpose of the building was to hold permanent exhibitions of Dutch arts and crafts. As a reward for Muysken's active participation as president of the Maatschappij, he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion by the government on the 50th anniversary of the Maatschappij. In 1897 Muysken stepped down as chairman and was appointed an honorary member of the Maatschappij. Not only was Muysken actively involved in the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst. He also served several times on committees, both in the supervision of large building commissions and in restoration and monument policy. In addition to these positions, Muysken also served on various juries for competitions. Muysken was, for example, a member of the Rijksmonumentencommissie, chairman of the commission for the restoration of the Dom Tower, member of the commission for the restoration of the Ridderzaal in The Hague, chairman of the Raadhuis-Damplein commission in Amsterdam, and member of the Supervisory Committee for the Construction