Model for the Tomb Monument of Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertsz Tromp (1598-1653) in the Oude Kerk in Delft

Entry

In the seventeenth century, the government of the Dutch Republic gradually emerged as an important patron of tomb monuments for ‘heroes of state’. Starting in 1607 – the year in which an epitaph for Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck (1567-1607) was commissioned, paid for by the state – a series of twenty tomb monuments was produced, mostly built in honour of naval heroes. Especially after the middle of the seventeenth century, when various sea battles were being waged against the English, the States General approached the nation’s top sculptors to undertake this task. First in line during this period was Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) and the tomb monument dedicated to Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Harpertsz Tromp.

Tromp was the most influential commander of the Dutch fleet in the seventeenth century, second only to De Ruyter. Tromp’s first major successes were against the sea-bandits at Duinkerken in 1639. In that same year, he went on to defeat the Spanish Armada, making its way in the direction of Flanders in the battle at Duins. Not only was the victory at Duins the high point of Tromp’s career, it was also the greatest tactical triumph in the history of the Dutch navy. Welcomed as a national hero upon his return, Tromp was celebrated in the form of countless bonfires, commemorative engravings, laudatory poems and victory hymns made in his honour. The States General of the Netherlands additionally rewarded him with 10,000 guilders, with King Louis XIV of France elevating him to noble status.

By the early 1650s, the number of sea battles with the English was mounting, with Tromp’s winning streak beginning to falter. Felled by an English sharpshooter’s bullet at the Battle of Scheveningen on 10 August 1653, the popular naval sea hero was laid to rest in the Oude Kerk in Delft. The monumental tomb later raised in his honour, completed in 1658, came to serve as a model for the form of other comparable monuments to follow.⁶ For that tomb monument, Rombout Verhulst probably devised various designs executed in clay, one of which was presented to the commissioning party, the States General, on 24 March 1654. Verhulst was formally assigned the project in 1655, together with Willem de Keyser, the sculptor responsible for the relief-carved scene of a sea battle adorning the tomb. The sculptor Verhulst had not been charged with the monument’s design; for this task, two leading architects had been hired, Pieter Post and Jacob van Campen. A preliminary design drawing, which later served as the basis for an engraved depiction of the monument, was possibly made by Post himself.⁷ It dates from an early stage in the design process, as suggested by the absence of the two escutcheons that would appear in the middle of the tomb, bearing the coats of arms of the commissioning parties, specifically, the States General and the states of Holland and West Friesland. It was on the basis of a preliminary design drawing such as this, previously approved by the States, that Verhulst would have devised the present clay model. The first model – also preserved in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (BK-NM-4352) – includes both Tromp’s recumbent effigy and the relief on the tomb’s rear wall. The second, present design shows only the gisant lying on a wooden tomb/pedestal that bears an accompanying inscription. The terracotta deviates from the previous design only in the detailing of the recumbent figure, with the sole modification being the round-tipped sabotons (armoured footwear) which correspond to those of the final work executed in marble. Because this second model more closely resembles the marble effigy, one may conclude it dates from a later stage than the other model.⁸

As stipulated by the States and following the design’s approval, Tromp’s descendants were responsible for the building of the tomb monument. One may therefore assume that both of the sculptor’s models may possibly have entered their possession. With respect to the larger model, existing documentation indeed attests to this fact. The provenance of the present terracotta, by contrast, can likely be traced back no further than the mid-eighteenth century, possibly the very ‘Model of a burial tomb, depicting the Admiral Tromp’ described in a sale catalogue of 1754 listing the collection formerly belonging to the renowned Amsterdam art collector Jeronimus Tonneman. In the nineteenth century, the same piece entered the possession of Neville Davidson Goldsmid (1814-1875), an engineer and entrepreneur from London who spent more than thirty years working in the Netherlands. As the director of the company Goldsmid & Co in The Hague, Goldsmid was responsible for the city’s natural gas supply. He also possessed an exquisite art collection that included works such as Vermeer’s Diana and her Nymphs⁹ and a sixteenth-century alabaster house altar of Mechelen manufacture (BK-NM-2918). One year following his death in Brussels in 1875, Goldsmid’s collection was sold in Paris. Acquired directly from the collector’s estate prior to this time, however, the model for Tromp’s tomb monument had already been preserved for Dutch national posterity.

Frits Scholten, 2024