Huis Bartolotti

Start with the name, because it came with the money. The man who had this house built in about 1617 was Willem van den Heuvel, one of the richest people in Amsterdam. He had inherited a great deal from an uncle by marriage who had no children: Giovanni Battista Bartolotti, a merchant from Bologna. The will had a condition. The heir had to call himself Bartolotti.

Now look at how he explained his wealth. On the front are two framed panels with words in Latin. On the left: Ingenio et assiduo labore, by ingenuity and hard work. On the right: Religione et probitate, by religion and honesty. The inheritance is not mentioned.

“The inheritance is not mentioned.”

The front is in the manner of Hendrick de Keyser, and the design is attributed to him; the building of it is put down to his son Pieter. It is covered in decoration: pilasters, bands of stone, masks, vases and scrolls, under a stepped gable. The balustrades beside the gable are a trick. Together with the pilasters there, they suggest another storey, so the house looks taller than it is.

It also bends. The Herengracht curves here, because the old city moat went round a bastion, and the house follows the curve with two kinks. The outermost window on each side is set at an angle.

Only three houses of this early kind, a house with a side house, survive in Amsterdam. One of the others is the Huis met de Hoofden. The society named after De Keyser acquired number 170 in 1924 and number 172 in 1971. The top of the gable, simplified early in the 19th century, was rebuilt, and the year of that work was put on it.