Object data
oil on panel
support: height 74.7 cm × width 59.9 cm
outer size: depth 9 cm
Bernard Zwaerdecroon
Portrait of Digna de Maets (?-before 1667)
c. 1648
Inscriptions
- signature, with monogram, lower left: B.Z.
- coat of arms, upper right: divided vertically. 1: a gold chevron and three gold stars, two above and one below, on a red field. 2: a red squirrel with a blue hoe on its left shoulder, on a silver field
- inscription, on the reverse: Iuffr Digna De Maats Dogter Vanden Heer Carolus De Maats Getrout met Den Heer Francois Leydekker Burgermester Van Thoole. (Miss Digna de Maets, daughter of Mr Carolus de Maets, married to Mr François Leydecker, burgomaster of Tholen.)
Technical notes
Support The panel consists of three vertically grained, butt-joined oak planks (approx. 14.2, 32.2 and 13.5 cm), approx. 1.2 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regularly spaced saw marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1635. The panel could have been ready for use by 1646, but a date in or after 1652 is more likely. The planks are from the same tree as those of the pendant (SK-A-828).
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the edges of the support. The first, off-white layer consists of fine white pigment particles and barely fills the grain of the wood. The second, reddish-beige layer contains white pigment particles varying in size, earth pigments and fine red pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint does not extend up to the edges of the support. A barb on all sides (approx. 1 cm) indicates that the panel was secured in a frame when the paint was applied. The figure and the oval trompe l’oeil frame were left in reserve in the background. A translucent brown undermodelling has remained visible in the eyes, neck and around the strands of hair resting on the shoulders. The face was further executed wet in wet and from dark to light with grey and flesh tones. The hair was left in reserve in the collar and was built up wet in wet with ochre and brown. The dress was done with grey and black, also wet in wet, reserving the collar. The lace, bow and lowest edge of the collar were placed on top of it. Finally, the black pattern in the fabric was added. The paint was applied very thinly throughout, apart from the face and the upper part of the dress. The paint surface is smooth, with slight brushstrokes showing only in the cap, the bow and the highlights.
Anna Krekeler, 2024
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared photography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 26 November 2009
- paint samples: A. Krekeler, RMA, nos. SK-A-829/1-2, 26 November 2009
- technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 26 November 2009
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 6 September 2010
Condition
Poor. The panel is very fragile. The left join (as seen from the reverse) has opened along its entire length, while the one on the right is partially open at the top (approx. 10 cm) and bottom (approx. 15 cm). At some point, two wooden blocks were glued cross-grain over the former. Insect damage is visible in the middle plank. There is a square nail hole above the sitter’s head. The lower left corner has two small scratches. Minor paint losses have occurred along the joins. The face and collar display many dark spots. Matt overpaint and retouchings are very apparent along the left, right and lower edges. The varnish is very thick, has yellowed and shows a whitish-grey haze at top right of the head and all over the dress. The saturation is poor.
Provenance
For both the present painting (SK-A-829) and its pendant (SK-A-828)
? Commissioned by or for the sitters; ? their son, François Leydecker (1650-1718), Sint-Maartensdijk, near Tholen; ? his daughter, Charlotte Maria Leydecker (1695-1746), Delft; ? her son, Gerard Cornelis van Riebeeck (1722-1759), Huis Essensteyn, Voorburg; ? his widow, Charlotte Beatrix Strick van Linschoten (1732-1795), Huis Essensteyn; her nieces, Jeanne G.C.B van Lynden (1762-1832) and Sophia M.A.L. van Lynden (1767-1834), Huis Essensteyn; ? their sister, Anna U.E. van Lynden (1773-1851), Huis Essensteyn; ? her brother, Jonkheer Jan Hendrik van Lynden van Lunenborg (1765-1854), Huis Essensteyn; his daughter, Jonkvrouw E.J.C.G.M. van Lynden (1796-1860), Huis Essensteyn; by whom bequeathed to her second cousin, Jonkheer J.H.F.K. van Swinderen (1837-1902), Balk (Friesland), with 24 other family portraits, 1860;1 by whom donated to the museum, as Anonymous, with 24 other family portraits, June 18842
Object number: SK-A-829
Credit line: Gift of Jonkheer J.H.F.K. van Swinderen, Groningen
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Bernard Zwaerdecroon (Utrecht c. 1617 - Utrecht 1654)
It was not until 1891 that the name of Bernard Zwaerdecroon, who had long been known from documents alone, was associated with the portrait painter who signed his works with a monogram consisting of the letters B and Z. He was born in Utrecht around 1617. His father was deputy headmaster of the Latin School, but after being dismissed for his Remonstrant beliefs in 1619 he became a notary. Bernard was a son from his second marriage and is recorded as an apprentice in the books of the Utrecht Guild of St Luke for the years 1630-32. After his wedding to his cousin Willemijn Zwaerdecroon of Rotterdam on 15 March 1644, the artist settled in Utrecht, where he is documented on several occasions in the second half of the decade. The will that the couple drew up on 18 January 1645 shows that Zwaerdecroon must have been doing quite well, because it mentions several pieces of gold jewellery that he had given Willemijn when they married. However, he got into financial difficulties not long afterwards, and in 1649 was involved in several court cases for not meeting his obligations, such as paying the rent on time. Matters had evidently deteriorated by the beginning of 1652 to such an extent that his wife left him, taking their child and moving in with her father, who was then living in Zoeterwoude, north-east of The Hague. The reason she gave was that her husband was unable to support his family. Zwaerdecroon died not long afterwards, in the night of 16-17 October 1654.
His extant oeuvre is very small and consists almost entirely of portraits, two of them group scenes. None has a clearly legible date. His only fully signed painting, the Portrait of the Family of Lambert van Kuijk and Maria Laurensdr Rampens, was added to after Zwaerdecroon’s death by his fellow townsman Jan van Bijlert.3
Gerdien Wuestman, 2024
References
C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters: Van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, V, Amsterdam 1861, p. 1903; S. Muller, Schilders-vereenigingen te Utrecht: Bescheiden uit het Gemeente-Archief, Utrecht 1880, p. 121; A. Bredius, ‘Het schildersregister van Jan Sysmus, Stads-Doctor van Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 9 (1891), pp. 137-49, esp. p. 146; P. Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, ‘Bernard Zwaerdecroon’, Oud Holland 13 (1895), pp. 57-64; C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘De wetenschappelijke resultaten van de Tentoonstelling van Oude Kunst te Utrecht in 1894 gehouden’, Oud Holland 13 (1895), pp. 34-56, esp. p. 47; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXVI, Leipzig 1947, p. 606; G.J. Hoogewerff, ‘Jan van Bijlert: Schilder van Utrecht (1598-1671)’, Oud Holland 80 (1965), pp. 2-33, esp. p. 31; M.J. Bok, ‘“Het gedroomde land”: Pastorale schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw’, Maandblad Oud-Utrecht 66 (1993), no. 4, pp. 35-38; H.J.M. Vieveen and E.J. Wolleswinkel, ‘Het familiestuk Van Kuyk is door Zwaardekroon en Jan van den Bylert geschildert’, De Nederlandsche Leeuw 113 (1996), cols. 129-38
Entry
This portrait and its pendant (SK-A-828; also fig. a) entered the Rijksmuseum in 1884 with the Van Swinderen Bequest as works by an unknown artist. On the evidence of the monograms, which are composed of the letters B and Z, the paintings were attributed to Bernard Zwaerdecroon in 1895.4 According to the inscriptions on the backs of the panels, which were applied with a stencil, the sitters are Digna de Maets and her husband and cousin François Leydecker, burgomaster of the small town of Tholen in Zeeland.5 Their coats of arms are in the upper corners of the portraits.6 It may seem odd that a couple from Zeeland would choose to have themselves depicted by a relatively unknown artist from Utrecht, but the simple explanation is that Digna de Maets came from that city; her father, the theologian Carolus de Maets (Matesius), was appointed professor there in 1639. The paintings may have been executed for or shortly after the pair’s marriage in 1646 ‒ a date that matches their clothing.7 The dendrochronological findings, though, suggest that they were made a few years later.8
Digna de Maets and François Leydecker are placed within painted oval frames of imitation marble with illusionistic cracks and small areas of damage, but the perspective of the edges is not entirely correct. One striking feature is the thinness of the execution, with some details being left completely unfinished, such as the areas around the sitters’ eyes.9 In its style and technique, and especially the rendering of the transparent collar, De Maets’s portait is very close to that of an unknown woman by Zwaerdecroon in Rotterdam.10
Gerdien Wuestman, 2024
See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
Literature
For both the present painting (SK-A-829) and its pendant (SK-A-828)
Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, ‘Bernard Zwaerdecroon’, Oud Holland 13 (1895), pp. 57-64, esp. pp. 63-64; F.G.L.O. van Kretschmar, ‘To be or not to be: De Van Riebeeck portretten in het Rijksmuseum’, Jaarboek van het Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie 38 (1984), pp. 97-139, esp. p. 119
Collection catalogues
1898, p. 41 (not numbered); 1903, p. 308, no. 2747; 1976, p. 622, no. A 829
Citation
Gerdien Wuestman, 2024, 'Bernardus Swaerdecroon, Portrait of Digna de Maets (?-before 1667), c. 1648', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6645
(accessed 25 November 2024 20:38:00).