POST, Pieter Jansz
(b. 1608, Haarlem, d. 1669, 's Gravenhage)

Statenzaal van Holland

1650s
Etching
Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam

Pieter Post began his career in Haarlem as a painter. Several of his paintings from the 1630s - landscapes and battle scenes - are known but they are not significant. His work as an architect, on the other hand, is one of the high-spots of classicism in Holland. He came into contact with architecture from the mid-1630s, when he assisted Jacob van Campen with the construction of the Mauritshuis. In 1645 he was appointed 'architect and painter' to Frederik Hendrik, and the lion's share of his work for the court was as an architect.

Post designed also interior decorations. A rich interior is the new Assembly Room that Post built for the Sates of Holland in 1652-55 in the Binnenhof in The Hague (the present-day building of the Upper House of the Dutch parliament. The decoration of the hall was completed in 1657-65. Post was the designer on the paintings on the ceiling and the cartoons for the monumental tapestry series on the walls. The result was a unique interplay of architecture, painting and tapestry.

The etching is by J. C. Philips after C. Pronk (1741).