Fortuna, Stone Tablet from a Facade

Entry

Appearing on the stone relief is Lady Fortuna, the personification of fortune. A flowing (inverted) ‘S’-form can be discerned in the positioning of the figure’s body and limbs. Her hair waves in the same direction as the full, wind-blown sail that arches above her. This iconography is in agreement with Horace’s description of Lady Fortuna as the mistress of the sea so greatly feared by seafaring ship captains (Odes 1:35). With her knees bent for balance, Fortuna stands on a sphere or globe, symbolic of both the fickleness of fortune and the world over which she exercises her dominion. On the right, misfortune is represented in the form of gathering clouds and a burning ship on the verge of sinking. The merchant ship depicted on the left is bestowed a far more favourable fate, as it rides the waves of the sea at full sail, assisted by the wind. With shipping being a key source of wealth in the Netherlands, Lady Fortuna was a popular scene on stone tablets adorning the facades of the nation’s buildings and houses.

According to Vogelsang, the stone tablet very likely came from the facade of a building in the Haarlemmer Houttuinen (Haarlemmer Wood Gardens), a former Amsterdam neighbourhood at the northern edge of the city.² At the broad dockside located in this area, incoming ships unloaded their cargoes of wood. It was also where the wood was stored in warehouses and subsequently sold. The neighbourhood’s function dates back to the early seventeenth century: the old dockside was deepened in 1610, making the area more accessible to accommodate the planned expansion of the nearby city centre with the building of the Canal District initiated in 1613. The style of the present stone tablet coincides with this period and could therefore conceivably have been made for the facade of a new warehouse or canal house built in the Houttuinen at this time.

Contrary to the frequently unembellished, fairly rudimentary scenes commonly encountered on stone facade tablets carved by ordinary stonecutters, the present tablet has been conceived with great care and the inclusion of numerous details. It therefore most likely involved the skills of a trained sculptor. Neurdenburg believed this could be no one other than Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621), the leading Northern Netherlandish sculptor at this time.³ She based her attribution in part on the appealing corporeal type, with broad hips and small breasts, that echoes the naked see goddesses found on engravings with ornamentation designed by De Keyser, which were published in the Bouckje van Zeegoden en Godinnen (cf. e.g. RP-P-1964-2459). Clear parallels to Fortuna’s facial type, with her sensual mouth and rigidly straight nose with its high bridge, can also be discerned in De Keyser’s documented oeuvre, including the bronze personifications of Justice (Justitia), Religion (Religio), Power (Fortitudo) and Liberty (Libertas), standing at the corners of William of Orange’s tomb monument in Delft.⁴

De Keyser is generally acknowledged as the sculptor responsible for the present stone tablet’s design. As far as can be ascertained, the composition is original, betraying no slavish reliance on earlier (graphic) models. One source of inspiration is perhaps Jacob de Gheyn’s famous engraving of Fortuna of 1596/97 (RP-P-BI-7102). As can be expected of a project of minor prestige, De Keyser would have assigned the execution of his design to an apprentice or workshop assistant. Large stone tablets integrated in building facades were often left unpainted. By contrast, smaller tablets, much more frequent in number, were typically furnished with polychromy, ensuring the visibility of the depicted scene when viewed from below at street level. Falling in the mid-size range, the present tablet shows no apparent signs of polychromy.

That the Amsterdam stone tablet enjoyed some notoriety is evident from the fact that an exact copy of the Fortuna appears on a stone grave plaque from circa 1615 made for one Lysbeth Jansdr Fortuyn, located in the floor of the city’s Oude Kerk.⁵ A second stone in the same church, made approximately fifteen years later, bears the same representation, albeit less skilfully rendered and in mirror image.⁶ Several later stone tablets, also once adorning the facades of Amsterdam houses (some still in situ), likewise centre on the theme of Lady Fortuna; but none appear to be directly inspired by the present relief.⁷

Bieke van der Mark, 2024