This article analyses three recent gestures by the Amsterdam Museum. Firstly, it discusses the museum’s replacement of the term “Golden Age” with the “more descriptive term” “17th century” when labelling exhibitions and collections of artworks from that period, since the term “Golden Age” allegedly reinforces the so-called “collective amnesia” regarding the Dutch colonial past. Secondly, it examines the consequent renaming of the museum’s semi-permanent collection from “Dutchmen of the Golden Age” to “Portrait Gallery of the 17th Century.” Thirdly, it focuses on a photographic exhibition, the first in a series of new perspectives presented by contemporary creators in the context of Black Achievement Month, titled “Dutch Masters Revisited” and portraying 17th-century Dutch people of colour in colonial outfits.
