Bozzetto for a Funerary Monument, Probably for Lieutenant-General Count Reinhard Vincent von Hompesch (c. 1660-1733)

Entry

This sketch model (bozzetto) of a wall tomb is signed by Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742) and dated 1728. The deceased is portrayed alive, reclining on a mattress with a pillow. Clearly this is a warrior, as the man is dressed in full panoply. A child sits at the foot of the mattress holding an upturned torch, a symbol of death. Near the warrior’s left hand, there are remnants of the chest and front paws of a recumbent dog. The fashionable demi-couché pose stemmed from foreign examples, originating mainly in Flanders.¹ Similar examples also crop up in the funerary sculpture of England, Germany and Denmark.²

In the past, the sketch model was thought to be an initial, rejected design for the funerary monument that lieutenant-general Baron Johan Theodor von Friesheim (1642-1733) had erected for himself during his life in the church of Heusden (fig. a).³ That is improbable, for various reasons. To start with, Xavery was only responsible for the realization of that tomb, it was designed by the architect Jacob Marot (1697-1761).⁴ Also, the number of armorial bearings does not tally: in the sketch there are sixteen (two double rows of four), whereas the monument in Heusden has only six. A final argument for doubting a connection with this commission is that the modello (BK-NM-11378) for that tomb and the installation of the actual marble monument both took place in 1731. It is hard to reconcile the earlier date of the present sketch (three years beforehand) with that later date, unless there was a special reason for a pause in the project.

However, there are many parallels between the bozzetto and the mausoleum Xavery designed and realized in 1732 for Count Johannes Lilljenstedt (1655-1732) in the Marienkirche in Stralsund (fig. b).⁵ The half-reclining (demi-couché) pose of the deceased laying on a mattress and leaning on a pillow, is very similar, though in mirror image. In addition, in the Swedish monument Xavery deployed the same motifs – a putto and a dog – which also feature in the sketch. However here again, the gap between the dates in which the two came about (1728 for the sketch and 1732 for the mausoleum in Stralsund) makes it unlikely that Xavery made the sketch specifically as a design for this tomb. This supposition is confirmed by the fact that Lilljenstedt was a member of the Swedish council of state, not a warrior, whereas the figure in the bozzetto is clad in armour.

A more likely possibility, as yet not put forward, is that the bozzetto concerns the commission for the tomb of lieutenant-general Count Reinhard Vincent von Hompesch (c. 1660-1733). In the end, the tomb was only erected by his relatives after his death, though Von Hompesch had himself already initiated the plans. The general had commissioned Xavery to model his portrait while he was still alive, and the artist had, amongst other things, already made a sketch and a draft contract for the tomb. Shortly after Von Hompesch’s death, reference was made in the resolutions of the orphan masters of the city of Delft (also the executors of his will) to the old, evidently expensive plan, and it was decided to instruct Xavery to make a less costly grave. Baron F.H.W. van der Heiden, Van Hompesch’s universal heir, was entrusted with commissioning the sepulchre, with the stipulation that it had to be ‘less expensive than the previous one, yet in keeping with the high birth and other qualities of the deceased.’⁶ This monument was to cost two thousand guilders, less than half needed to complete the original plan (‘far exceeding four thousand guilders’). The tomb was finished in 1734 and placed in the Pfarrkirche St. Martinus at Linnich (North Rhine-Westphalia) a year later. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a fire at the church after the attack by Austrian troops in October 1794.⁷ Thanks to Xavery’s pencil drawing (fig. c) and a copy by the Delft notary and genealogist Willem van der Lely (1698-1772) we know what it looked like.⁸ It was a wall tomb with a vault topped by a separate portrait bust flanked by sixteen quarterly coats of arms (two rows of four). Clearly, the first plan, costing twice as much, would have entailed a far more magnificent design, and probably would have included a complete, recumbent figure, like the design of the present terracotta. It even seems plausible the bozzetto can be identified as the original design for the monument to the warrior in question. Firstly, the bozzetto portrays a warrior in full panoply and has the correct number of quarterly coats of arms. Secondly, the features of the man in the bozzetto – with his large hooked nose and pronounced chin – although not highly detailed, tally with those of the portrait print of Von Hompesch (cf. RP-P-1904-3752). And lastly, the fact that the count had the sculptor already start preparations for his tomb while he was still alive, ties in with the date Xavery placed on the sketch (1728). Be that as it may, in view of the considerable similarities, it would seem that Xavery returned to this not realized ‘de-luxe design’ four years later, for the Lilljenstedt tomb in Stralsund. In that case, the sculptor made a mirror image version of his older design, an alteration that was undoubtedly defined by the intended position in the church, with the deceased’s face pointing in the direction of the main altar in the east.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025