reading response

A Note on the Dutch Origins of South African Colonial Architecture Author(s): Jona Schellekens Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 204-206 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/991284 Accessed: 29-10-2016 15:57 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted

digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about

JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at

http://about.jstor.org/terms

Society of Architectural Historians, University of California Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

This content downloaded from 204.168.144.64 on Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:57:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

A Note on the Dutch Origins of South African Colonial Architecture

JONA SCHELLEKENS, Hebrew University ofJerusalem

n 1652 the Dutch founded a victualing station on the way to

India at the Cape of Good Hope. Over the years this station

grew into a colony that attracted settlers from the Netherlands,

Germany, and France before its capture by the British in 1806.

In the second half of the eighteenth century the settlers

developed a local style of architecture, dubbed by some "Cape

Dutch," on the assumption that its origins are to be found in

the Netherlands. This was indeed the accepted view until Jan

van der Meulen questioned it in an article published in this

journal over thirty years ago.1 One characteristic feature of South African colonial archi-

tecture which has attracted the attention of many observers is

the extensive use of gables. Earlier research has repeatedly

sought to justify the term "Cape Dutch" solely by comparing

the decorative form of these gables to those of Amsterdam.

However, in the second half of the eighteenth century, the

period in which the entire development of the South African

gable tradition occurred, gabled architecture had gradually ceased to be built in Amsterdam. Instead, van der Meulen

suggested "that it is possible to localize the true origins of this

architecture in an area of northern Europe lying to the east of

Holland," in Germany and Scandinavia.2

Previous research sought the origins of the mostly rural South African colonial architecture in urban Dutch architec-

ture, but, as van der Meulen noted, with meager results. Rural

Dutch architecture, however, may be a better field in which to

look. Much of the argument presented here is based on a comparison between South African colonial gable design and that in a rural-industrial area of Holland.

North of Amsterdam, along the river Zaan, ships were built

for the Dutch East India Company, including vessels that sailed

to the Cape. As a result of the large supply of wood for shipbuilding, much more timber was incorporated in buildings in this area than was usual for other parts of Hol-

land.3 Gables, in particular, were often made of timber. Cornice-

topped facades were the dominant fashion in Amsterdam in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The gable tradition was still vigourous along the Zaan, however, until

the British capture of the Cape. South African gables have

many features in common with gables along the river Zaan, in

A______IH Ii

FIGURE I: Elsenburg, country house near Mulder's Vlei, 1761, south front

FIGURE 2: Lagedijk 4, Koog aan de Zaan, late example of an offset ogee gable, 1 822 (detail of measured drawing, 1957)

204 JSAH / 56:2, JUNE 1997

This content downloaded from 204.168.144.64 on Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:57:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

!i~ii! ,?!i~ i!; i~i !i!i~ii!!~ i~i!!i~ii~ii~ii~ii~i~~iii~iiiiiliii~liii!ii ' ?' ? ' !ii~i~ii!iiiiiii~iii~~ii~ii!iii~ ~i!i~iii-i i? ii-! ii-i!iii ! !i iii ii ii i! i !!i!i! i i-ii i i!!!: iiii!i

q , iiiii~iiiii'iiilii iiii~ iii~i!,iiii~li4 ... ...... !ii~ii iiiii,,~ i ~i,ii~ ,i ii~i~iiiliiii!!!i~i!i!~iii!!! !i!i~iii - iii!i-iii! - ? !ilii~iiiiiiiii~~iiii!i~iii!iiiiii~i~iiiiiiii~i~iiiii i! ili i~i ! i ii, i !il i i! i i i

FIGURE 3: Rhone, Groot Drakenstein valley, 1795, front elevation

FIGURE 4: Westzijde 37, Zaandam (now in the Openluchtmuseum, Amhem), late eighteenth or early nineteenth century

spite of the different materials used. I will present two ex-

amples.

Van der Meulen divides South African gable types into two

categories: the earliest, with freely curved contours; and a

later, more classical version with pediments and often pilasters.

One of the most popular gable types is composed of alternat-

ing convex and concave curves in the form of an offset ogee. A

gable on the South African country house Elsenburg, which

dates from 1761, is one of the oldest examples [Figure 1]. Many

of the gables of this type appear as side gables. According to

van der Meulen, no "Dutch prototypes have been postulated

for this ... gable form."4 This type is indeed very rare in Amsterdam and other cities and towns.5 However, it is one of

the more common types of gable along the river Zaan [Fig- ure 2].

The country house Rhone in Groot Drakenstein has one of

the oldest dated gables of a more neoclassical design [Figure

3]. The gable carries the date 1795. Its windows are flanked by

fluted pilasters which are topped by a triangular pediment. I

do not know of any urban gables of this type in the Nether-

lands during this period. However, this type was very popular

at the time along the Zaan. A house originally at Westzijde 37

in Zaandam, now at the Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem, is a

typical example [Figure 4].

Rural Dutch architecture was probably not the only source for South African colonial architecture. Some of the decora-

tive features of South African gables point to urban Dutch

influence. A gable on the country house Stellenberg has a pediment flanked by volutes [Figure 5]. No exact building date

is known for this gable, but two similar gables date from the

early 1780s, one on the Lutheran Parsonage in Cape Town and one on the house called Groot Constantia.6 This gable

type was very popular in Dutch towns, where it is known as

halsgevel (neck gable). Nevertheless, van der Meulen rejects

previous attributions of this gable type to Dutch prototypes in

favor of a German origin.7 However, a closer look at decorative

features confirms its Dutch origins. First, the volutes with the

typical "hooks," known today as haakvoluten, are a Dutch invention.8 Second, the way in which the scrolls are inter-

rupted horizontally about halfway up the gable also points to

Holland.9 In fact, both elements were used by the seventeenth-

century "Palladian" architect Philips Vingboons in his design

of gables [Figure 6].10 Of course, there remains the problem of

the use of a seventeenth-century gable type in eighteenth-

century South Africa. Perhaps the 1736 edition of Vingboons's

works reached South Africa. Or perhaps wooden gables along

the Zaan which have vanished are the missing link.'l Haak- voluten, which cannot be found along the river Zaan, became

popular in South Africa about a hundred years after they had fallen out of favor in Holland.12

Not all gables in South Africa can be shown to derive directly from Dutch prototypes. Some are probably a local

development, while others may have been introduced from

elsewhere. Several of the more common types, however, can

be shown to be related to Dutch prototypes. Most of these

seem to be related to rural gables along the river Zaan. Only

one group of gables, including those on the Lutheran Parson-

age in Cape Town, Groot Constantia, and Stellenberg, can be

related directly to urban gables. Van der Meulen's preference

for a German origin for this group is based on his discovery

that a German sculptor was linked to the construction of the

Lutheran Parsonage. It is not known, however, where this

German craftsman received his training. A closer look at decorative features, such as the haakvoluten, suggests that his

training may well have been Dutch.

Van der Meulen has shown that there is often a striking

resemblance between rural northern European architecture

and South African country house architecture. Part of this is

SCHELLEKENS: SOUTH AFRICAN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE 205

This content downloaded from 204.168.144.64 on Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:57:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

-:-i::iiiiii ?iiiiii~?i: ::::: j_;::i :

IIMP

1. fi

I Ill I I I 1 ........ ... ...............

FIGURE 5: Stellenberg, country house near Wynberg, Cape Town, remodeled or rebuilt end of the eighteenth century, front elevation

FIGURE 6: Philips Vingboons, design for a town house, from Afbeeldsels der Voomnaemste Gebouwen (Amsterdam, 1 648)

probably due to a common ancestry, which includes gable design in the Low Countries.13 The resemblance is no doubt

enhanced by the use of whitewash. However, in spite of the

different materials used, the many similarities between rural

Dutch and South African colonial architecture suggest that

the term "Cape Dutch" for South African colonial architec-

ture may not be inappropriate.14

Notes

1Jan van der Meulen, "Northern European Origins of South African Colonial Architecture,"JSAH122 (1963): 51-61.

2 Ibid., 51. For gable design in Amsterdam see R. Meischke, H.J. Zantkuijl, W. Raue, and P. T. E. E. Rosenberg, Huizen in Nederland: Amsterdam (Zwolle, 1995).

3 Timber was also used elsewhere in North Holland. However, the most

elaborate wooden gable designs are to be found along the Zaan. See R. Meischke, H. J. Zantkuijl, W. Raue, and P. T. E. E. Rosenberg, Huizen in Nederland: Friesland en Noord-Holland (Zwolle, 1993), 94-95. On the other hand,

most eighteenth-century gables in South Africa were made of brick, which was

plastered over. See G. E. Pearse, Eighteenth Century Architecture in South Africa (Cape Town, 1968), 22. This may explain the much cruder appearance of many South African gables.

4 Van der Meulen, "Northern European Origins," 54. 5A rare example of an urban gable composed of alternating convex and

concave curves is the house at Sint Olofspoort 2, whose gable probably dates from the mid-1750s. See Meischke et al., Amsterdam, 157-158. There are at least

two additional examples in Utrecht: Lijnmarkt 33 and Oudegracht 346. See MarcelineJ. Dolfin, E. M. Kylstra, andJean Penders, Utrecht: De Huizen binnen de

Singels (The Hague, 1989), 72 and 134. 6 The gable of the Lutheran Parsonage in Cape Town dates from 1781. See

van der Meulen, "Northern European Origins," 55. The gable over the main entrance of Groot Constantia, in its present state, may date from shortly after

1779, since the house is said to have been in a ruinous state when purchased in

1779. See Pearse, Eighteenth Century Architecture, 43.

7 Van der Meulen, "Northern European Origins," 55, 61, and figure 11. 8 F A. J. Vermeulen, Handboek tot de Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Bouwkunst

(The Hague, 1931), 2:218, traces the history of the haakvoluut.

9 On a gable designed by Vingboons in 1639 for Daniel Soyhier, these horizontal interruptions still look like diamond knobs. See W. Kuyper, Dutch Classicist Architecture (Delft, 1980), 106.

10 For Vingboons, see Koen Ottenheym, Philips Vingboons (1607-1678), Archi-

tect (Zutphen, 1989). 11 A few halsgevels survive on farms. However, none date from the eighteenth

century. The best-known examples are Meerzicht, which dates from 1677, and De Eenhoorn, which dates from 1682. In spite of the difference in date, both closely resemble Stellenberg as a result of the use of cross gables.

12 See, for example, van der Meulen, "Northern European Origins," 55, figure 12.

13 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Netherlandish Scrolled Gables of the Sixteenth and

Early Seventeenth Centuries (NewYork, 1978), 81-85 and 99-102.

14 Van der Meulen did not base his argument only on a comparison of gable

types. He found further evidence for the northern European provenance of the South African colonial house in the three-room ground plan and the use of

cross gables. Recent research, however, has shown that the three-room ground

plan was commonly used for urban as well as rural houses in North Holland and survived there well into the nineteenth century. See Meischke et al., Friesland en Noord-Holland, 10-12. Houses along the river Zaan occasionally have cross gables, such as Noorderhoofdstraat 74 in Krommenie, which dates from 1780.

Illustration Credits

Figures 1, 3, 5. G. E. Pearse, Eighteenth Century Architecture in South Africa, plates

83, 88, 58

Figure 2. Photo: Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, Arnhem Figure 4. Author Figure 6. Vingboons, AJbeeldsels der Voornaemste Gebouwen (Amsterdam, 1648),

plate 20

206 JSAH / 56:2, JUNE 1997

This content downloaded from 204.168.144.64 on Sat, 29 Oct 2016 15:57:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms