Object data
ivory
height 12.9 cm × width 9.4 cm × thickness 1.8 cm
Francis van Bossuit (circle of)
Woman with a Lute
Amsterdam, c. 1680 - c. 1730
Technical notes
Carved in high relief and polished.
Condition
The left ring finger is missing.1 Is was replaced at one point.2 and later removed again.
Provenance
…; sale collection Jan Bisschop, Rotterdam (Laurens Constant & Zn.), 15 July 1771, no. 195, fl. 25, to Jan Snellen (1711-1787), Rotterdam;3 by descent to Samuel Constant Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880), The Hague; from whom acquired by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885
Object number: BK-NM-2933
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
The alluring woman depicted on this relief gazes dreamily over her right shoulder while plucking on the strings of a lute. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this instrument was applied in works of art as the personification of Music (one of the Seven Free Arts) and of Hearing (one of the Five Senses). Virtually the same composition can be observed on a highly similar ivory relief, preserved at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. Instead of playing the lute, however, she holds a flower wreath and a bouquet of flowers, thus betraying her identity as Flora (fig. a).4 Unlike the present relief of the lute-playing woman, the Flora was included in Mattys Pool’s monograph on Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692) from 1727, therein described as an autograph work.5 Posthumously published with ninety-five etchings and an accompanying text in three different languages, this comprehensive overview presented a significant portion of Van Bossuit’s oeuvre, thereby confirming the substantial renown his work had already garnered by this time. In addition to freestanding ivories (cf. BK-1998-74) and ambitious panels with dynamic, pictorial compositions (cf. BK-NM-2931), other known works by the sculptor include at least twelve serene reliefs centring on biblical, mythological or allegorical half-lengths. With some of these works, Van Bossuit reused the same composition, even when scenes varied in subject.6 Theuerkauff rightly noted that the Flora and the Woman with Lute share the same composition. Citing Van Bossuit’s proven approach, he logically attributed the Rijksmuseum relief to the same sculptor.7 While there is no doubt Van Bossuit’s Flora served as the model, Theuerkauff’s attribution fails to convince: the woman’s face, her attire and locks of hair lack the liveliness and flowing lines characteristic of the master. Furthermore, the drapery falls onto the lower ledge – itself carelessly articulated with unseemly scratch markings – in an unrealistic, awkward manner.
Given the undeniable similarity to Van Bossuit’s documented ivories, the relief’s maker is most likely to be found in the master’s immediate surroundings. The Amsterdam textile merchant and amateur ivory-carver Adam Oortmans (1622-1684), together with his wife, Petronella de la Court (1624-1707) was not only the sculptor’s most important patron, but is also known to have studied under the master on an amateur basis.8 Perhaps Van Bossuit personally assisted or was directly involved in the realization of the present relief. Such a conclusion is further supported by the fact that the lute-playing woman is an originally conceived variant of one of Van Bossuit’s own compositions versus an uninformed copy based on one of his published works.
Bieke van der Mark, 2025
Literature
G. van Bever, Les tailleurs d’yvoires de la Renaissance au XIXe siècle, Brussels 1946, p. 34; E. Neurdenburg, De zeventiende eeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden: Hendrick de Keyser, Artus Quellinus, Rombout Verhulst en tijdgenooten, Amsterdam 1948, p. 264, note 709; Wills 1968, p. 49; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 336, with earlier literature; C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”ʼ, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. p. 152 and no. 27; R.J.A. te Rijdt, ‘Een “nieuw” portret van een “nieuwe” verzamelaar van kunst en naturaliën: Jan Snellen geportretteerd door Aert Schouman in 1746’, Oud Holland 111 (1997), pp. 22-53, esp. p. 35; W. Hornbostel et al., Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (Prestel-Museumsführer), coll. cat. Hamburg 2000, p. 61; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 18
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2025, 'circle of Francis van Bossuit, Woman with a Lute, Amsterdam, c. 1680 - c. 1730', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200116042
(accessed 8 December 2025 12:04:54).