Portrait of an Unknown Man, Probably an Amsterdam Burgomaster

Entry

On the basis of the attire, this portrait bust of a man can be situated in the Northern Netherlands and dated to around the third quarter of the seventeenth century. A remarkable development, since in neighbouring countries the genre of the sculpted portrait bust was still almost solely reserved for royalty.¹ The sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) stood at the fundament of this Dutch republican tradition. Several later examples of auspicious quality were also carved by Quellinus’s assistants, Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) and Bartholomeus Eggers (1637-1692), who adhered to the formula first developed by their master. This entailed a natural effect typically achieved through portraying the sitter with the head turned slightly to one side and with one or both hands integrated in the composition (cf. Quellinus’s exquisite bust of Andries de Graaff from 1661, BK-18305).

The sitter’s identity is unknown. Given the bust’s provenance, however, it may possibly concern one of the illustrious ancestors of Jonkheer Dr Jan Pieter Six van Hillegom (1824-1899), a descendent of the important Amsterdam regental families Six and Tulp. On the basis of style, attire and the manner of the hair (no wig), the portrait can be dated circa 1660-75. Leeuwenberg attributed the bust to ‘the school’ of Bartholomeus Eggers.² Even if executed less skilfully than his autograph works (cf. BK-KOG-1457), the bust was most likely created under Eggers’s direct supervision. Elements supporting this conclusion include the marked similarity to the sculptor’s slightly rigid style, the bust’s frontality, the finishing of the hands and hair, and the flat treatment of the folds. An additional argument in favour of this attribution is the half-length portrait, a format also encountered with Eggers’s portrayal of burgomaster Gerard Schaep van Cortenhoeff (1598-1666).³

Bieke van der Mark, 2025