All works in European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum

Artus Quellinus (I)

The ‘Amsterdam Cog’ Borne by Mercury, Hercules, Minerva and Neptune, Model for the Crowning Element of a Pump Designed for the Courtyard of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Amsterdam, c. 1651 - c. 1652

The ‘Amsterdam Cog’ Borne by Mercury, Hercules, Minerva and Neptune, Model for the Crowning Element of a Pump Designed for the Courtyard of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Object data

terracotta

height 31.7 cm × width c. 29.5 cm × depth c. 24 cm

Technical notes

Modelled and fired.

Scientific examination and reports

  • condition report: I. Garachon, RMA, 20 October 1994
  • condition report: I. Garachon, RMA, 25 April 2004
  • conservation report: I. Garachon, RMA, 2005

Condition

A large part of the attribute in Mercury’s left hand (a money bag?) is missing. A broken-off corner of the base plate has been restored.1

Conservation

  • I. Garachon, RMA, 2005: restoration of the broken-off corner of the base plate.

Provenance

Commissioned by the City of Amsterdam, c. 1651;2 from the artist,3 transferred to the Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1664;4 transferred to the Stadstekenacademie (at two or three successive locations), Amsterdam, 1808;5 transferred to the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (old Exchange of Hendrick de Keyser), Amsterdam, 1821;6 transferred to the Oude Mannenhuis, Amsterdam 1837;7 transferred to the Town Hall at the Prinsenhof, Amsterdam, 1878;8 on loan to the museum, since 18879

Object number: BK-AM-51-10

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

This sketch of four classical gods carrying a cog ship – an old symbol of the city Amsterdam – is one of the terracotta sketches and models made by the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) and his assistants in preparation for the sculptural decoration of the new Amsterdam town hall, today the Royal Palace on the Dam Square (for an extensive history of the town hall, its significance and decoration programme, see ‘Context’). After the project’s completion, Quellinus’s Amsterdam studio was closed in 1664. At this time, the city’s burgomasters ordered that all of the remaining works and presentation models be transferred to the new town hall. With this move, the ensemble of fifty-one pieces officially became the property of the city of Amsterdam.10 A number were transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1887/88 on a long-term basis. All other works are today preserved at the Amsterdam Museum.

Each of the town hall’s two inner courtyards was to be furnished with monumental water pumps or fountains, each crowned by a statuary group.11 A sculpture dedicated to filial piety, Cimon and Pero (Caritas Romana) (BK-AM-51-11), was planned for the fountain in the north courtyard; the crowning element of the pump in the south courtyard was to be adorned with an allegory of maritime shipping.12 Quellinus made the present terracotta sketch for the latter waterwork in 1651 or 1652, for which the account books indicate he was paid 24 guilders.13

This freely modelled, indisputably autograph work was clearly conceived as an initial exploration of the design’s theme, to be further worked out at a later stage. Fremantle suspected that this model and that of the other pump were further realized in life-size models later to be cast in bronze.14 The high amount that Quellinus had declared indeed suggests he produced such casting models at full scale. Nevertheless, he failed to receive the 1,000 guilders for the moddellen van beelden die geordonneert waren tot de pompehof (models of statues destined for the pump courtyard) – i.e. the definitive models, of which there has since been no trace – because, in 1665, the then serving burgomasters decided that niet genoeghsaem bleeck dat daer ordre toe gegeven was (it proved ill-befitting that such an order had been made). In the end, the amount was settled with another, as yet unpaid item for marble delivered to Quellinus by the city.15

The present sketch model shows four gods – kneeling or sitting – together bearing the hull of a cog ship on their shoulders. From its earliest days, Amsterdam’s municipal seal featured a cog ship, the medieval sailing vessel from which the city derived its prosperity. Even after the three crosses of St Andrew were introduced on the municipal coat of arms in 1484, the cog continued to serve as a symbol of the city and its maritime shipping industry.16 It was Van Campen and Quellinus who introduced the idea of using a ship as the crowning element for a pump, possibly inspired by examples in Rome. The concept, however, also refers to the Roman naval crown (corona navalis) found elsewhere in the town hall. Three of the four gods are recognizable by their attributes: Mercury, by his winged helmet (a petasus) and what remains of a money bag in his hand; Hercules, by the lion’s pelt on his head; and Minerva, by her helmet and the shield on which she sits. The fourth god is a bearded man without an attribute, in all likelihood Neptune (or Jupiter?).17 As such, the fountain conveyed the message that maritime shipping – the city’s prime source of prosperity – flourishes under the protection of the god of commerce, the strength of the heroic demigod Hercules, the wisdom of Minerva and the god of the sea, Neptune.18 The iconography is highly befitting, given that the fountain was to be erected in the inner courtyard adjoining the municipal bank and the treasury, where the city’s gold and silver reserves were kept.19

The present bozzetto is derived from an early design for the west tympanum relief of the Amsterdam town hall, conceived by the building’s architect, Jacob van Campen. This preliminary design – a compact allegory – has survived via an engraving by Daniël Stalpaert from 1650: portrayed as a female version of Mercury, the Maid of Amsterdam sits atop a cog ship supported by several smaller figures.20 The iconography of the cog ship was possibly deemed suited for the fountain designs only after Van Campen had devised his new (definitive) design for the tympanum, with the cog ship in a less prominent position. Added to the revised design, inserted at the Maid of Amsterdam’s feet, were the river gods Amstel and IJ: the same waters flowing through the two pumps to be installed in the town hall’s inner courtyards. Fremantle suggested that the models for each pump – including the present model – were initially to be executed as life-size bronzes, but that these plans were discarded in 1664 due to the excessive cost.21 Whatever the case may be, the present sketch is the liveliest, freely modelled design of Quellinus’s known models, representing a stage in the sculptural design process for which relatively few other examples from this period have been preserved in the Netherlands.

Frits Scholten, 2024

Literature

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 282-a, with earlier literature; K. Fremantle and W. Halsema-Kubes, Beelden Kijken: De kunst van Quellien in het Paleis op de Dam/Focus on Sculpture: Quellien’s Art in the Palace on the Dam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace) 1977, fig. 82; M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 103; H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. pp. 49, 51 (fig. 62l); H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75; C. Baisier et al., Terracotta’s uit de 17de en 18de eeuw: De verzameling Van Herck, coll. cat. Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) 2000, p. 31 (fig.); P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, p. 843 (fig. 4); F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 41-44, fig. 50

Citation

F. Scholten, 2024, 'Artus (I) Quellinus, The ‘Amsterdam Cog’ Borne by Mercury, Hercules, Minerva and Neptune, Model for the Crowning Element of a Pump Designed for the Courtyard of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, c. 1651 - c. 1652', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24606

(accessed 24 March 2025 02:05:45).

Footnotes

  • 1 The damage occured in April 2004 during transport to the depot in Lelystad, see Damage report, I. Garachon, RMA, 25 April 1994.
  • 2 In a list of  the works that Quellinus had ‘made and intended to make for the city of Amsterdam’ for which payments were received in instalments in the period 24 October 1651 to 7 March 1652, the sculptor himself entered the following: Geboetcheert voor de pompen die op de plaetse sullen staen op elcke pomp vier belden aen malcander aen elck verdint 4 pont --- 48 [gulden] (modelled for the pumps that will stand in the courtyard, on each pump four connected figures, each earning 4 pounds --- 48 [guilders], see Stadsarchief Amsterdam (hereafter: SAA), archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 6. Moreover, a similar entry in a list of works for which the city authorities had ‘paid in full’ on 11 April 1652 (no. 4) confirms that Quellinus received a payment of 24 guilders for each of the two sculptures gebotcheert om op de plaetse vant nieuw stadhuys te stellen, op elcke pomp 4 belden aen malkanderen (modelled to be installed in the courtyard of the new town hall, on each pump four connected figures). Both entries, and an entry on the undated list no. 11, refer to this sketch and to the Cimon and Pero (<a href= "https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-AM-51-11/catalogue-entry" target="_blank">BK-AM-51-11</a>). See K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 102, and Vreeken 1995, p. 49.
  • 3 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 104 (note 15): dewijl zijn werk lootse nu affgebroken wordt dat haer Edele [burgemeesters] sullen laten affhalen de modellen vande beelden die hij ten behoeve dezer Stede gemaeckt heeft (while his workshop is being closed, that her Noble [burgomasters] shall have the models of the sculptures that he made on behalf of this City collected). See also H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 62 (referring to A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138).
  • 4 H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 62-64. The models were initially kept in the Thesaurie Ordinaris (Treasury) of the town hall. Around 1700, most were moved to the art cabinet in the kunstkamer (art chamber) on the third floor, see Wegwyzer door Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Nicolaas ten Hoorn) 1713, p. 446. From 1768 on, the task of overseeing the models’ preservation was assigned to the Stadstekenacademie (City Drawing Academy), also located in the aforementioned kunstkamer. In 1769, academy director Cornelis Ploos van Amstel compiled an inventory of all sculptures in the art chamber. This inventory also included Quellinus’s models, see SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library), Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Notitie van Boetseersels en Pleisterbeelden enz bewaard wordende op de kunstkamer van het stadhuijs der stad Amsterdam (January 1769). From November 1796 to April 1806, the Stadstekenacademie was obliged to (temporarily) vacate the town hall art chamber on the orders of the French occupier. During this period, it is not known where the models were stored, though presumably they remained in the town hall, albeit without oversight. In April 1806, the models were moved to the rariteitenkamer (curiosity chamber), also called the Diplomatieke Bibliotheek (Diplomatic Library).
  • 5 The collection was moved in 1808, when Louis Napoleon took up residence in the town hall. H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 67-68. See also SAA, archive 265 (Stadstekenacademie), inv. nos. 1-4 and 6-54.
  • 6 H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 70, referring to SAA, archive 265 (Stadstekenacademie), inv. no. 4 (minutes of 1818-1821).
  • 7 H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 70-71. See also SAA, archive PA 681 (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten), inv. no. 7.
  • 8 H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp.  p. 72. See also SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library).
  • 9 See SAA, archive H. 86.002 (Library).
  • 10 A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138.
  • 11 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18.
  • 12 In 1769, the group was described as ‘Maritime Shipping’, see SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library), Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Notitie van Boetseersels en Pleisterbeelden enz bewaard wordende op de kunstkamer van het stadhuijs der stad Amsterdam (January 1769. See also K. Fremantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959, p. 40 (note 4).
  • 13 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 102, referring to SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 175, nos. 4, 6, 11.
  • 14 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 117.
  • 15 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 117, and Vreeken 1995, p. 49, verwijzend naar SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 3, fol. 20r (1 May 1665).
  • 16 K. Fremantle, ‘Motifs from Ripa and Rubens in the Royal Palace of Amsterdam’, The Burlington Magazine 103 (1961), pp. 263-64.
  • 17 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. pp. 115-16, where the figure of Neptune is identified as Jupiter.
  • 18 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. pp. 115-16.
  • 19 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 114.
  • 20 K. Fremantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959, pp. 172-73.
  • 21 K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 117.