Portrait Medallion of Johan de Witt (1625-1672)

Entry

These ivory portrait medallions of brothers Johan (shown here) and Cornelis (BK-18760-B) de Witt are ultimately derived from Jan de Baen’s painted portraits of the two men in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-13 and -14).² As the faces on the medallions nowhere nearly approach the emphatically oblong form of their painted equivalents, however, one must assume they were modelled after a print or other secondary model. An annotation on the reverse of Johan’s carved portrait – inscribed in a nineteenth-century handwriting – states that both pieces were first sold in 1859 as part of the collection of J. Moyet, and again in 1869, as part of the Isaac Meuleman collection. The catalogues accompanying the sales indeed verify the sale of both medallions. Noteworthy in the earlier catalogue is the identification of the reliefs’ maker as ‘Bossuet’, referring to the famed Antwerp sculptor Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692).³ Moyet did in fact possess an authentic ivory relief by Van Bossuit (Diana and Callisto, today preserved in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden).⁴ Even so, the attribution of the present portraits to the same artist holds no ground:⁵ throughout the nineteenth century, Van Bossuit was the default name linked to any ivorycarving perceived to be of Netherlandish origin, reflecting the scant knowledge of the material existing at the time.

A similar portrait medallion of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (NG-NM-4200) has been in the Rijksmuseum’s collection since 1878. In 1999, a portrait of Hugo Grotius – possibly the relief’s pendant – was also acquired by the museum (NG-1999-3). Having virtually the same dimensions, all four medallions were probably made by the same ivorycarver. The level of finishing on the De Witt reliefs and the Van Oldenbarnevelt portrait is essentially the same. By comparison, the medallion with Hugo Grotius is polished more smoothly. Somewhat related are a number of ivory portrait medallions linked to the Flemish (?) sculptor Gaspar van der Hagen (d. 1769), an artist probably to be identified as the Monogrammist GVDR.⁶ General parallels can be observed in the onset and rendering of the hair, the broad noses, and the large eyes with emphatically delineated eyelids found on a set of three ivory-carved oval portrait medallions of John Milton, Queen Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell in the Victoria and Albert Museum,⁷ and an ivory medallion in the Reiner Winkler Collection, possibly a portrait of King-Stadholder Willem III.⁸ As an assistant to the native Antwerp sculptor Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770) (cf. BK-NM-5760 and BK-2018-9) in London from 1744 on, Van der Hagen sculpted in marble. In his autonomous work, however, he appears to have specialized in oval portrait medallions of historical figures carved in ivory, frequently based on three-dimensional models by Rysbrack. By comparison with Van der Hagen’s carvings, the four Amsterdam ivories lack the refinement and the ‘fleshiness’ in the faces of most of the works attributed to Van der Hagen. The carving is less skilled and rather stiff. This raises the question: are the medallions perhaps early works by Van der Hagen, made in the Low Countries prior to his departure for London? In any case, acknowledging the stylistic parallels to the signed work of this sculptor and his master, Rysbrack, the Southern Netherlands (Antwerp?) – where a long and rich ivory carving tradition existed, surpassing that of the Dutch Republic – emerges as a conceivable place where their maker was trained.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025