Rijksmuseum

Object data

black and white chalk, on paper toned brownish-green

height 273 mm × width 198 mm

Inscriptions

stamped on verso: lower right, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: unknown

Condition

Several repairs around the edges

Provenance

…; collection Albert Rosenthal (1863-1939);¹ sale, New York (Christie’s), 27 October 1985, no. 435a; …; sale, London (Christie’s South Kensington), 8 December 2009, no. 391, to M. Kiener, Zurich; from whom purchased by H.B. van der Ven, The Hague, 2017; by whom partially donated to the museum (L. 2228), 2017

Object number: RP-T-2017-69-27

Credit line: Purchased with the support of H.B. van der Ven, The Hague

The artist

Johannes Lutma (I) (Emden 1584 – Amsterdam 1669)

He was a silver- and goldsmith and possibly an engraver whose Auricular style (‘Kwabstijl’) was briefly influential among a group of artists in the Netherlands, Germany and possibly Denmark.² Based on a drawing of a sculptor in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1953-9), he was in Paris around 1615. He established himself in Amsterdam in 1621. Lutma’s younger brother, Joost Lutma (?-?), who was likewise a silversmith, also moved to Amsterdam and probably collaborated with him.³ Lutma married twice, to Mayken Roelants (?-?) in 1623 and to Saera de Bie (?-?) in 1638.⁴ By his first wife, he had two sons, Johannes Lutma II (c. 1624-1689) and Jacob Lutma (after 1624-1654), both of whom would later make engravings after their father’s designs. A well-known example is the design for the choir-screen in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1892-A-17495).⁵ Lutma I was a friend of Rembrandt (1606-1669), who etched his portrait (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-550).⁶ Lutma was buried in Amsterdam on 29 January 1669.⁷

With the exception of the museum’s drawing of a sculptor, the few known drawings attributed to Lutma are all studies for his ornamental designs in silver and gold. These drawings reveal his thinking as a sculptor. The designs are quickly sketched in black chalk: he concentrated mostly on rendering a sense of volume and used highlights to convey the reflective qualities of the metal.⁸

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

References
A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten (III)’, Oud-Holland 3 (1885), p. 226; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, vol. XXIII (1929), p. 481; J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, vol. XIX, p. 817; R. Baarsen and I. Castelijns van Beek, Kwab. Ornament als kunst in de eeuw van Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018, pp. 89-157; R. Baarsen, ‘Johannes Lutma de oude als tekenaar’, Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design 42 (2020), pp. 83-98

Entry

In this design for a silver condiment dish, Lutma managed to convey the ambiguous, flowing nature of Auricular-style ornament, known since the late nineteenth century by the Dutch term kwab. All of the elements of this dish have been formed into soft, undulating shapes that derive their name from their resemblance to the inside of the human ear. Lutma used quick lines in black chalk to outline the dish and applied heavy, partly smudged hatching to set it against the brownish-green toned paper. The white highlights emphasize how the light would fall onto the metal. The drawing is worked out in such a way that both the client and the silversmith understood exactly how the dish would be conceived. For example, the top of the dish is tilted to show that it could accommodate four containers for spices.

The sheet is the only seventeenth-century drawing in an album of eighteenth-century drawings documenting silver objects in the collection of Anthoni Grill (1664–1727), a silversmith of Swedish descent who had a shop in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. The album, now part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection, was put together in the twentieth century.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Literature

R. Baarsen and I. Castelijns van Beek, Kwab. Ornament als kunst in de eeuw van Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018, no. 42, fig. 104; R. Baarsen, ‘Johannes Lutma de oude als tekenaar’, Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design 42 (2020), p. 89, fig. 11

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Johannes (1584-1669) Lutma, Design for a Condiment Dish, Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.685939

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