All works in European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum

Artus Quellinus (I) (workshop of)

The Four Continents Bringing Tribute to Amsterdam: Model for the West Tympanum of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Amsterdam, c. 1650 - c. 1653

The Four Continents Bringing Tribute to Amsterdam: Model for the West Tympanum of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Object data

terracotta

height 90 cm × width 415 cm

Technical notes

Consisting of many separately modelled and fired sections. Analysis by Hallebeek (Centraal Laboratorium) in 1986 revealed that the finishing coat was applied in multiple layers simultaneously. In addition to iron oxide, plaster, red ochre, wax and lead white, these layers also contain Prussian blue. Accordingly, this indicates that the coating dates from the 18th century or later, given that synthetic pigment was first produced only in the early 18th century.

Scientific examination and reports

  • X-ray powder diffraction: P. Hallebeek, Centraal Laboratorium Amsterdam, 26 March 1986

Condition

One or two sections are missing: specifically, two children at the feet of the personification of Europe, located left of the Maid of Amsterdam, and the lower half of her body. Furthermore, various figures have sustained minor damage.

Provenance

Commissioned by the City of Amsterdam, c. 1650-53;1 ? from the artist,2 transferred to the Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1664;3…; acquired in Holland by Benoni Verhelst (1803-1861), Ghent, c. 1808;4 his sale, Ghent (F. Verhulst), 10-13 May 1859, no. 403;5 acquired by the architect Théophile Bureau (1827-1884), Ghent; from whom, acquired by the City of Amsterdam and transferred to the Town Hall at the Prinsenhof, 1882;6 on loan to the museum, since 18877

Object number: BK-AM-51-3

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

This design for a tympanum belongs to a group of 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.8 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.

The present terracotta is a large, approximately 1:5 scale model of the sculptural decoration on the pediment of the Amsterdam town hall’s west facade. The scene shows the four then known continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and America – personified as female figures bringing tribute to the Maid of Amsterdam, who sits before a cog ship that dominates the background at the tympanum’s centre. Lying at her feet are two recumbent figures: male river gods personifying the IJ and Amstel rivers. Leading the figures bringing tributes on the tympanum’s left half is the continent Europe, accompanied by a horse and two oxen. She wears classical raiment, a crown and cradles a cornucopia in her two hands. The continent Africa follows: a black woman accompanied by a lion, an elephant and two attendants, one holding a parrot and the other a chameleon. At the rear, far left, men can be seen busy moving various pieces of mercantile ware: bales, a barrel, elephant tusks and other objects. First in line to offer tribute on the tympanum’s right half is the continent Asia, portrayed as a veiled woman holding an incense burner, accompanied by a camel and an ostrich, and several children bearing small luxury goods and a crocodile. After these figures comes America, depicted as a Native American woman wearing a feathered headdress, with her bare back facing the viewer. She grasps the arm of a male slave crouched behind her, while an armadillo paces between her feet. Seated right is an Indian smoking a pipe, who gazes in the direction of apparent mineworkers, a scene possibly referring to goldmines in recently discovered California.9

The functional status of the present terracotta model for the tympanum design remains unclear. The town hall account books include only one entry regarding a modelled design for the frontespies – for the amount of 600 guilders – with no further specification to enable a more precise identification among the various surviving models.10 On the model for the east tympanum (BK-AM-51-2),11 which has survived completely intact, one discerns quadrant lines to facilitate scale reproduction incised in the clay. The absence of such markings on the present model, by contrast, arguably suggest it could not have been a studio working model. In 1901, Pit noted that the thick red finishing layer covering the model’s surface impeded any stylistic evaluation aimed to detect Quellinus’s hand.12 With the removal of this layer, however, the evident high quality points to a work quite probably executed largely by Quellinus himself. This corroborates Leeuwenberg’s view in 1973, which characterized the design in the following terms: ‘…chiefly the work of Quellinus […] the rather dull execution here and there suggests the hand of one of Quellinus’s close assistants’.13 This also rules out the possibility that the piece is a replica, made at the request of a private patron. Given the high level of finishing and the obvious deviations from previous designs, e.g. Van Campen’s sketch (RP-T-1906-18), a drawing possibly by Daniël Stalpaert or Quellinus himself (RP-T-00-414) and the small-scale design on the wooden town hall maquette, the present terracotta model likely functioned as a vidimus presented for the burgomasters’ approval.14 Its date of origin is circa 1650-53, as the town hall account book in which a frontespies is listed was compiled around 1652-53. The execution of the definitive tympanum design in marbled followed several years later, in 1656 or 1658, completed at the astronomical cost of 9,500 guilders, excluding an additional 500 guilders remitted to Quellinus as vereering (bonus) for his work.15

The provenance of the present tympanum model deviates from most of the other Quellinus objects held by the municipality of Amsterdam. The piece was in fact acquired many years after its making, in 1882, from the Ghent architect Théophile Bureau (1827-1884), a purchase that entailed two years of negotiation and the mediation of the Dordrecht merchant J.A. van Dam.16 Bureau himself acquired the piece at an 1859 sale of possessions formerly belonging to the Ghent archaeologist Benoni Verhelst (1803-1861), who in his turn had purchased it some fifty years earlier reportedly ‘in Holland’.17 It therefore becomes quite conceivable that the model was sold by the city during a period of unrest in Amsterdam’s history in the years 1795 to 1805/08, a fate that presumably also befell approximately twelve other models.18 Another less probable scenario is that the tympanum model originated from the collection of Govert Bidloo (1649-1713), an Amsterdam/Leiden physician and esteemed man of letters. A framed ‘original model’ of the town hall’s west tympanum he apparently owned was sold at his 1713 estate sale for the amount of fifty-three guilders.19 What happened to the piece after the sale is not known, just as by what means Bidloo – an avid supporter of the House of Orange whose relations with the Amsterdam burgomasters were far from ideal – had come to acquire the model.

Frits Scholten, 2024

Literature

A. Pit, ‘De verzameling Hollandsch beeldhouwwerk in het Nederlandsch Museum te Amsterdam’, Bulletin van den Nederlandschen Oudheidkundigen Bond 2 (1900-01), pp. 6-17, esp. p. 7, no. 14; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 277, 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, pp. 20-21 (fig. 15); M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 82; 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. 44-47 and fig. 60b; 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; F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 16-17 (fig. 14)

Citation

F. Scholten, 2024, 'workshop of Artus (I) Quellinus, The Four Continents Bringing Tribute to Amsterdam: Model for the West Tympanum of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, c. 1650 - c. 1653', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24597

(accessed 16 July 2025 04:51:12).

Footnotes

  • 1 Vreeken cites an account book entry for a model of het frontespies (the pediment) for 600 guilders, presumably dating from 1652 or 1653: Stadsarchief Amsterdam (hereafter: SAA), archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 11. By this time, the entire account had already been tsedert lange in diverse partyen betaelt (since long in various instalments paid). Unclear is whether the entry concerns the east or west pediment. The latter was executed in marble in either 1656 or 1658. See 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. p. 45.
  • 2 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).
  • 3 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). 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. Several of the models, including the model discussed here, entered private hands at some point in time.
  • 4 Benoni Verhelst is said to have purchased the terracotta model in Holland approximately fifty years before his sale in 1859, see inventory card Amsterdam Museum.
  • 5 Described as: Terre cuite. Un grand bas-relief triangulaire, exprimant l’idee première du fronton de l’Hôtel-de-ville (palais) d’Amsterdam. Les cinq parties du monde apportent leurs tributs au commerce de la cité. Modelé par Artur Quellin. - Pièce en dehors de l’appartement. (Terracotta. A large triangular bas-relief, conveying the initial concept of ​​the pediment of the Amsterdam Town Hall (palace). The five parts of the world bring their tributes to the commerce of the city. Modelled by Artur Quellin. - piece separate from the apartment.).
  • 6 Efforts to acquire the tympanum from T. Bureau in Ghent on the City of Amsterdam’s behalf began in 1880. 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. 73.
  • 7 See SAA, archive H. 86.002 (Library).
  • 8 A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138.
  • 9 J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 214.
  • 10 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. p. 45.
  • 11 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. p. 43 and fig. 57.
  • 12 A. Pit, ‘De verzameling Hollandsch beeldhouwwerk in het Nederlandsch Museum te Amsterdam’, Bulletin van den Nederlandschen Oudheidkundigen Bond 2 (1900-01), pp. 6-17, esp. p. 7 (no. 14).
  • 13 grotendeels het werk van Quellinus (...) de hier en daar wat matte uitvoering doet de hand van een van Quellinus’ naaste medewerkers veronderstellen, J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 214.
  • 14 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. p. 45 and fig. 45. For Van Campen’s sketch, see F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, fig. 48.
  • 15 SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 11. See J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 214, and 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. p. 45.
  • 16 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. 73.
  • 17 M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, p. 193 (no. 82). For Verhelst, see U. Müller, ‘Particuliere kunst- en antiekverzamelaars in negentiende-eeuws Gent, door de lens van de internationale reisliteratuur’, Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent 69 (2015), pp. 103-27, esp. pp. 114-16. The visitor’s register of the Benoni Verhelst art cabinet has been preserved in the University Library, Ghent, inv. no. rug01:001275773 (Registre des visiteurs des Cabinets Benoni Verhelst, à Gand, 1845-1857).
  • 18 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, 70, 73.
  • 19 Sale Govert Bidloo (1649-1713), Leiden (Samuel Luchtmans), 1713, p. 109: Het Model origineel van het frontespies van de agtergeevel van het Stathuys van Amsterdam / door Quellijn in een Lijst (The original Model of the rear facade of the Town Hall of Amsterdam / by Quellijn in a Frame). See 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. p. 44 (and note 24).