Distribution of Bread, Stone Tablet from the Facade of the Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis in Amsterdam

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These three stone-carved tablets come from the facade of the former Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis, built in 1649, on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. In an engraving in Dapper’s Historische Beschryving der Stadt Amsterdam from 1663, the three tablets can be seen in their original location (fig. a). The relief with the Registering of the Paupers (BK-AM-40-A) was located above the left door of the so-called tuinhuis (garden house), a low structure adjacent to the main building. The two other reliefs depict the Summoning of the Paupers (BK-AM-40-B) and the Distribution of Bread (shown here), located respectively above the right door of the garden house and above the passageway to the bakery. The stone tablets adorned the facade of the Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis from the time it was established until the demolition of the main building in 1873.¹ Four years later, the city of Amsterdam loaned these works to the Rijksmuseum on a long-term basis.

In volume four of his Beschryvinge van Amsterdam (1665), Isaac Commelin (1598-1676) writes that the facade of the Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis is decorated with ‘three artistically carved (hard-)stones, depicting the work of charity done in these houses, made by the respected Stonecarver Mr. … Keyzer’.² The omission of the artist’s first name indicates that Commelin was uncertain precisely which member of this Amsterdam sculptors’ family was responsible for these works. Given that Hendrick de Keyser I died in the year 1621, this was unquestionably one of his sons. Willem de Keyser (1603-after 1674) is the most likely candidate, not only because he was the municipal stonecarver of Amsterdam at the time of the Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis’ construction,³ but also because the style of the stone tablets most closely resembles his work. As previously noted by Neurdenburg, the reliefs display the same liveliness and the narrative aspect encountered with Willem de Keyser’s signed relief on the tomb monument of Maarten Harpertsz Tromp in the Oude Kerk in Delft.⁴

The preparatory design of one of the stone tablets, namely the Summoning of the Paupers, has survived to the present day in the form of a sketch drawing (fig. b).⁵ To assist the sculptor in transferring and enlarging the composition, a grid was drawn directly on the sketch in red chalk. On the drawing’s reverse, the names ‘Pieter Jansz’ and ‘Keyser’ have been inscribed in two different, seventeenth-century handwritings.⁶ Commelin had already named De Keyser as the relief’s author, one may therefore assume the other name refers to the draughtsman of the design. This individual has since been identified as the Amsterdam glass painter Pieter Jansz (1602-1672).⁷ When comparing the preliminary study to the completed carving, it becomes clear the sculptor made numerous modifications in an attempting to achieve an optimal spatial arrangement in the perspective of his relief. Additionally, the gestures and poses of some figures have been adapted to enhance the scene’s dynamic.

Leeuwenberg alone rejected the attribution to Willem de Keyser. He found the stone tablets stylistically more akin to works by the Amsterdam woodcarver Albert Jansz Vinckenbrinck, especially in the acquired level of spatial depth, which indeed recalls that of the panels on the barrel of his pulpit in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.⁸ This attribution of these stone reliefs becomes problematic, if acknowledging that Vinckenbrinck is not known to have ever worked in stone. There is also no reason to question the accuracy of the two sources, who clearly refer to the sculptor by his surname ‘De Keyser’. For this reason, Willem de Keyser remains the most plausible candidate.

The arched relief above the side entrance to the Bank van Lening on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal and the stone tablet with the ‘De Lindt Winkel’ on the Rozenstraat, both in Amsterdam, may be attributed to the same workshop.⁹ Numerous similarities can be discerned between the three tablets from the Nieuwezijds Huiszittenhuis and these works, both in the figural types and the slightly offset perspective lines.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025