Mercury

Entry

The sculptor Hendrick de Keyser’s (1565-1621) estate, drawn up in 1621, lists den Mercurius separately as a work that was to remain in the possession of the sculptors widow, together with an Amor and Psyche, a portrait bust of Willem van Orange, five modelled children’s figures, a Laocoön, a horse, three modelled anatomical models, and the model of William I of Orange’s tomb monument. The remainder of the estate was transferred to De Keyser’s son, Pieter, himself a sculptor.² Besides the terracotta model of the tomb for the Prince of Orange (BK-AM-37), the present Mercury, monogrammed and dated, is the sole work from this group properly identified as such. From the time of its discovery in 1959, this bronze statuette has served as the starting point for all other pieces of Kleinplastik attributed to the master.³

Preceded in the estate document by the Dutch article den (the) – as opposed to een (a), as with most of the other cited works – the bronze Mercury is certain to have enjoyed a certain notoriety. The various – unsigned – replicas of the bronze statuette suggest a fairly wide dissemination in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The documented estate inventory of the Delft silversmith Thomas Cruse (1624) mentions Noch ein form van den Marcuryus van de Keyser (Another mould of the Mercury by De Keyser). It also lists other works by the sculptor, either autograph pieces or casts made after his models: an Apollo, an Orpheus and Cerberus, several horses and an écorché.⁴ Additionally, three different pen-and-ink drawings of the Mercury – from different sides – were made by Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671),⁵ who similarly recorded other works by De Keyser and Willem van Tetrode in pen-and-ink drawings with wash, perhaps meant as illustrations for a publication on contemporary sculpture.⁶ The composition’s popularity in the Netherlands is additionally supported by the existence of yet another sheet showing six different views of the Mercury – attributed to Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594/95-1667) – all rendered in red chalk.⁷ Furthermore, around 1655-60 the Antwerp painter Jacques Jordaens (1593-1676) made a series of three study drawings closely resembling De Keyser’s Mercury from different directions.⁸ He however added a voluminous drapery onto the figure’s body, which is the main focus of these drawings. It is unclear whether Jordaens covered a version of statuette with a piece of cloth or if he asked a live model to pose in exactly the same position as De Keyser’s Mercury.

The bronze’s renown also extended beyond the Netherlands, as the recent sale of a life-size marble Mercury from northern Italy confirms. Given the numerous parallels in facial type and pose when comparing this work to De Keyser’s design – albeit mirrored – one can only conclude that the model served as its main source of inspiration, most likely via a plaster cast.⁹

Two bronze replicas of the Mercury are known: one in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris,¹⁰ the other at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig.¹¹ Both are later casts lacking the sculptor’s monogram. In both cases, the original model has been reworked with chasing and other alterations. The maker of the Paris cast transformed the model into Perseus wielding a sword, with the head of Argus lying at his feet. The Braunschweig figure is less spontaneous in character and poorly cast: the execution of the pubic hair is somewhat crude, while Mercury’s helmet has a peened surface. This bronze appears be a Netherlandish cast from the seventeenth century. Recently a lead cast measuring 3 centimetres higher was discovered. Given the style of the integrally cast socle, it can be placed in the first half of the eighteenth century, most likely also in the Netherlands.¹² A smaller version carved in palm wood, originating from the Bloch collection in Vienna and sold in Luzern and Berlin, also exists.¹³ Theoretically, this sculpture could have been made by De Keyser himself, as he is known to have worked with this wood type on more than one occasion. Judging by the coarse and schematic modelling, however, in this case such an attribution appears unfounded.

The soft modelling of the Mercury and its elegant, mannerist pose demonstrate that the roots of De Keyser’s style partly lay in works by contemporaneous painters such as Abraham Bloemaert, Cornelis van Haarlem and Joachim Wtewael. Comparable figures, sharing the pose and facial type, can be observed in Bloemaert’s Joseph and his Brothers in Egypt and Wtewael’s Banquet of the Gods.¹⁴ The latter’s design for a salt cellar from 1603 is adorned with figures rendered with a similar sense of flowing line and supple modelling encountered on the Mercury.¹⁵ De Keyser knew both painters well: Wtewael – who also worked with sculpture – commissioned him to make his terracotta portrait bust in 1606 (BK-NM-4191);¹⁶ Bloemaert was the son of his first teacher. Yet Bartholomeus Spranger’s drawing of Hermes (Mercury), Athena and the Industrious Artist, was perhaps a more immediate model for the present figure. Made no later than 1611, this drawing was engraved by Jan Muller in Amsterdam in 1628 (RP-P-OB-32.192). The standing pose of the Mercury in this print bears a striking resemblance to that of De Keyer’s statuette.

Frits Scholten, 2024
An earlier version of this entry was published in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 38