Garden Vase with Allegories of Autumn and Summer

Entry

In the second half of the seventeenth century marble and sandstone vases were an established decorative and prestigious element in formal gardens in the Netherlands. The two most admired examples from classical antiquity, the Borghese Vase and the de Medici Vase, both in Rome, were an important source of inspiration for artists (and garden designers) from all over Europe. However, sculpted garden vases were introduced in the Netherlands by way of French garden design, in particular that of Versailles. They first surfaced on a large scale in the gardens created for King-Stadholder Willem III and his entourage. The French-born court architect, Daniël Marot (1661-1752) was often involved in designing those gardens.

This set of two garden vases with reliefs of allegories of the Four Seasons could have also been designed by Daniël Marot, since both their form and ornaments are strongly reminiscent of his repertoire (for the other vase, see BK-16444-A). The present vase is signed and dated 1714 by the sculptor Jacob Cressant (before 1685-after 1759/before 1766) who, like Marot came from France.³ There is no documentation to place Cressant in the Netherlands when these pieces were made, but it is very probable that he indeed was. At all events, he was active in Utrecht from round 1728. In 1740 Cressant moved to Amsterdam, where he stayed until his return to France in 1750 to take up the appointment of professeur-adjoint at the Paris Académie des Beaux-Arts.

The personifications of the seasons – in this case, the classical gods Flora, Ceres, Bacchus and Saturn – are depicted seated or semi-reclining, in keeping with the horizontal format of the portrayals in relief. In the space beside each of these gods there are depictions of three different infants bearing attributes. It is possible that the number three was chosen each time because each season has three months. With spring, represented by Flora, the children carry a nest of baby birds, a basket of flowers and a helmet and fasces. With summer, Ceres is leaning against a sheaf of corn, holding a sickle in her other hand, while on the right a child with a rake is handing the summer goddess a pear. The other two are also carrying fruit. Then there is Bacchus: he is being offered a goblet and a basket of fruit, while the putto on the far right, with a bagged hare and a hound in the background, recalls that autumn is the hunting season. Saturn, identifiable by his scythe, warms himself by a coal fire, while, beside him, a child is putting on ice skates. The two other winter children, among whom a girl in clothes, are holding an axe (on account of the tree-felling in December) and a mask (referring to carnival or as protection against the cold).

Heads of fauns protrude from the lower rim; each is connected by a volute to the head of a woman in the upper rim. The fauns’ beards, hair and horns spread over the lower edge and, similarly, the women’s curls extend over the upper rim. The fauns, placed, as lesser creatures of nature, on the lower edge of the vase, are understandable; the women, two of whom are wearing fashionable hunting headgear, are less easy to explain iconographically. Also the flaming heart on the top is an unusual motif, since vases of this type are usually crowned with a smooth knob or a pomegranate. A flaming heart is a symbol of burning love, both in religious and secular terns, but one wonders whether this symbol is appropriate for the depiction of the seasons.

Stylistically, the garden vases are singular, since they are the earliest known examples of the use of rococo ornamentation in the Netherlands. Although the urn-shaped vases are mainly decorated in a late-Louis XIV style reminiscent of Daniël Marot’s work and appropriate to the date of 1714, above and below the allegorical reliefs with the four seasons, a kind of slightly asymmetrical ‘scroll moulding’ has been included, comprising C-volutes and rocailles – motifs from the Rococo repertoire. Ornamentation of this type was not found in the Netherlands before the mid-1730s, and it occurred only occasionally around 1714 in France – where Cressant will have encountered this new style. The vases, with their newfangled decoration, should therefore be seen as very early experiments in rococo style, which – perhaps not by chance – originated in the fanciful decorations of garden grottoes.

The vases come from the estate of the merchant Theodorus de Leeuw, since 1715 lord of Abcoude and Baambrugge. In 1744 his goods and chattels, including the contents of his Amsterdam mansion, were sold at his country residence, Elsenburg aan de Vecht (near Maarssen).⁴ Around 1717 De Leeuw had commissioned Marot to design a garden pavilion for Elsenburg (though it is unclear whether it was ever built),⁵ and therefore it had long been supposed that the vases were also designed by Marot for this country house.⁶ However, that is impossible, because De Leeuw only acquired Elsenburg in 1715, whereas the signed vase bears the date 1714.⁷ Nor is François Verboon, dwelling in Leiden and owner of the residence in that year, a credible candidate for the commissioning of the work. He had purchased Elsenburg at the end of 1712, presumably as an investment, since he succeeded in selling it at a good profit just little over a year later.⁸ In view of the date, De Leeuw might well have commissioned the vases for the canal house at 548 Herengracht in Amsterdam which he bought in 1714.⁹ That does not mean that the set might not later still have graced the garden of his country residence Elsenburg.¹⁰

After De Leeuw’s death the vases were acquired by the wealthy Baptist silk manufacturer and merchant, David van Mollem (1670-1746). A passionate horticulturalist, he spent much of his capital extending and enhancing the pleasure garden at his estate of Zijdebalen.¹¹ He enlisted such well-known artists as Jan Baptist Xavery, Jan van der Mast and Jacob Cressant for the garden sculptures. The latter supplied not only a large number of garden ornaments, but also sculptures for indoors, including an excellent terracotta portrait bust of his maecenas which is now in the Centraal Museum (Utrecht).¹² In addition, Van Mollem purchased existing work by Cressant at auctions. For instance, in Zeist he acquired a set of monumental garden vases of 1738 (present whereabouts unknown) depicting David and Esther, and at the above-mentioned sale of Theodorus de Leeuw’s effects in 1744 succeeded in purchasing the vases discussed here. The set was one of Van Mollem’s last important acquisitions. He died two years later.

In the inventory of the garden vases drawn up in 1746 after Van Mollem’s death, the present set is described as follows: ‘On the Mount, two Large Marble Vases by Cressant’. In one of the many drawings Jan de Beijer made of the garden, the vases can indeed be seen on either side of the central passage of the triumphal arch, standing in a central place in the garden on an artificial mount (fig. a).¹³ They were probably set in openings, so the depictions of the Four Seasons could be seen from all sides. Together with the flanking obelisks, carved by Jan Baptist Xavery (present whereabouts unknown),¹⁴ the ‘seasons’ vases constituted a highly appropriate iconographic theme for a garden. They contained medallions depicting a snapped tulip and a child sower, referring to the fragility of existence and the hope for a life to come. At some time after Van Mollem’s death, the vases were relocated in the garden. They recur on the inventory for 1796, in one of the garden’s avenues. At that stage the vases depicting David and Esther occupied their place in the triumphal arch, probably to honour the deceased maecenas and his wife.¹⁵

Arjan de Koomen and Frits Scholten (updated by Bieke van der Mark in 2025)
This entry is an adaptation of the following entries: R. Baarsen et al., Rococo in Nederland, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, no. 1 and R. Baarsen et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1700-1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2006, no. 18