Exterior view

After a few experiments in the 1620s with the application of classical pilaster orders, in the 1630s Jacob van Campen was given the opportunity to design the classical ideal of a three-dimensional, detached building: the Mauritshuis in The Hague. This urban villa for Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen beside the Hofvijver in The Hague, wit its colossal Ionic pilasters along its four outside walls, was the convincing example of the new classical architecture in Holland.