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.⁵ The seventeenth-century tombs of Dutch naval heroes generally comprise the same key elements, in part stemming from the genre of heroic laudatory literature: the depiction of the deceased hero, the heraldic devices of both the hero and the tomb’s patrons, a relief-carved scene of a sea battle, a tomb inscription, and various additional details of funerary- and maritime-themed ornamentation. On 24 March 1654, the present clay-fired model was presented to the commissioning body, the States General, likely by the tomb’s sculptor, Rombout Verhulst.⁶ A second design, likewise executed in terracotta and in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, shows only the finished figure of Tromp, lying in state (see the entry on BK-NM-2919).

The overall composition of the present model essentially matches that of the sculpture on the actual tomb monument, built in the years 1654-1658: elements missing from the model include the crowning sculpture and the garlands on either side atop the flanking pilasters. An echo of these details can nevertheless be discerned on the oak-carved frame made to encase the relief. 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.

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 the sculptor’s models finally came into their possession. The present model likely originates from the two estate inventories drawn up in 1717 following the death of Tromp’s daughter, Anna Gans-Tromp – the first concerns her home called ‘Keysershoff’ in the centre of Den Bosch (1 February 1717), the second her country home ‘Binderen’ outside Helmond (10 April 1717). Both inventories make mention of such a model: ‘An old model of wood and plasterwork of the admiral Marten Herpertse Tromp’ (Den Bosch) and ‘The model of the tomb of admiral Tromp in oak’.⁸ The latter inventory states that the piece was sold to one ‘M. Sarluis’, presumably a Jewish merchant and forefather of the Hague merchant S. Sarluis, from whom the museum purchased the model in 1873.

Frits Scholten, 2024