Two Children on a Garland of Flowers, From a Group Representing the Four Elements

Entry

The museum acquired these two fragments of a decorative ensemble in 1957, from the Amsterdam demolition contractors, A. Gosler en Zonen. The three infants are sitting on garlands of flowers which they grasp with one hand. In the other hand, they are holding (or once held) attributes symbolizing the elements. In one fragment (shown here) the child on the left has a bird in its hand (Air) and the child on the right a cresset (Fire). The third (BK-1957-24-B) and fourth child (missing) would have held attributes symbolizing the other two elements: Earth and Water. The iconography of the four elements, combined with garlands of flowers, evokes strong associations with nature. It would, therefore, seem highly plausible that the fragments came from the interior of a garden pavilion (in Amsterdam?) or a country residence.

The type of child is highly reminiscent of the putti of the Antwerp sculptor Michiel Emanuel Shee (c. 1695-1739), who began working in Amsterdam in 1727. For instance, two boxwood putti, signed ‘ML Shee F. 1737’ in the Amsterdam Museum collection, invite comparison with the children featured here.¹ They sit in a similar pose, with one leg pulled up, a straight back, a somewhat distended belly and with their attribute held in one hand above the head. It is clear from an entry in Shee’s preserved accounts book that he not only worked in sandstone and marble for large-scale sculptures, but also in wood, and that he also produced sculptural decorations for permanent attachment: for example, in July 1737 the Amsterdam merchant Pieter Cliquet (1701-1765) paid him 420 guilders to ‘make a mantelpiece in oak’.²

Bieke van der Mark, 2025