The ‘Amsterdam Cog’ Borne by Mercury, Hercules, Minerva and Neptune, Model for the Crowning Element of a Pump Designed for the Courtyard of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Entry

This sketch of four classical gods carrying a cog ship – an old symbol of the city Amsterdam – is one of the terracotta sketches and models made by the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) and his assistants in preparation for the sculptural decoration of the new Amsterdam town hall, today the Royal Palace on the Dam Square (for an extensive history of the town hall, its significance and decoration programme, see ‘Context’). After the project’s completion, Quellinus’s Amsterdam studio was closed in 1664. At this time, the city’s burgomasters ordered that all of the remaining works and presentation models be transferred to the new town hall. With this move, the ensemble of fifty-one pieces officially became the property of the city of Amsterdam.¹⁰ A number were transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1887/88 on a long-term basis. All other works are today preserved at the Amsterdam Museum.

Each of the town hall’s two inner courtyards was to be furnished with monumental water pumps or fountains, each crowned by a statuary group.¹¹ A sculpture dedicated to filial piety, Cimon and Pero (Caritas Romana) (BK-AM-51-11), was planned for the fountain in the north courtyard; the crowning element of the pump in the south courtyard was to be adorned with an allegory of maritime shipping.¹² Quellinus made the present terracotta sketch for the latter waterwork in 1651 or 1652, for which the account books indicate he was paid 24 guilders.¹³

This freely modelled, indisputably autograph work was clearly conceived as an initial exploration of the design’s theme, to be further worked out at a later stage. Fremantle suspected that this model and that of the other pump were further realized in life-size models later to be cast in bronze.¹⁴ The high amount that Quellinus had declared indeed suggests he produced such casting models at full scale. Nevertheless, he failed to receive the 1,000 guilders for the moddellen van beelden die geordonneert waren tot de pompehof (models of statues destined for the pump courtyard) – i.e. the definitive models, of which there has since been no trace – because, in 1665, the then serving burgomasters decided that niet genoeghsaem bleeck dat daer ordre toe gegeven was (it proved ill-befitting that such an order had been made). In the end, the amount was settled with another, as yet unpaid item for marble delivered to Quellinus by the city.¹⁵

The present sketch model shows four gods – kneeling or sitting – together bearing the hull of a cog ship on their shoulders. From its earliest days, Amsterdam’s municipal seal featured a cog ship, the medieval sailing vessel from which the city derived its prosperity. Even after the three crosses of St Andrew were introduced on the municipal coat of arms in 1484, the cog continued to serve as a symbol of the city and its maritime shipping industry.¹⁶ It was Van Campen and Quellinus who introduced the idea of using a ship as the crowning element for a pump, possibly inspired by examples in Rome. The concept, however, also refers to the Roman naval crown (corona navalis) found elsewhere in the town hall. Three of the four gods are recognizable by their attributes: Mercury, by his winged helmet (a petasus) and what remains of a money bag in his hand; Hercules, by the lion’s pelt on his head; and Minerva, by her helmet and the shield on which she sits. The fourth god is a bearded man without an attribute, in all likelihood Neptune (or Jupiter?).¹⁷ As such, the fountain conveyed the message that maritime shipping – the city’s prime source of prosperity – flourishes under the protection of the god of commerce, the strength of the heroic demigod Hercules, the wisdom of Minerva and the god of the sea, Neptune.¹⁸ The iconography is highly befitting, given that the fountain was to be erected in the inner courtyard adjoining the municipal bank and the treasury, where the city’s gold and silver reserves were kept.¹⁹

The present bozzetto is derived from an early design for the west tympanum relief of the Amsterdam town hall, conceived by the building’s architect, Jacob van Campen. This preliminary design – a compact allegory – has survived via an engraving by Daniël Stalpaert from 1650: portrayed as a female version of Mercury, the Maid of Amsterdam sits atop a cog ship supported by several smaller figures.²⁰ The iconography of the cog ship was possibly deemed suited for the fountain designs only after Van Campen had devised his new (definitive) design for the tympanum, with the cog ship in a less prominent position. Added to the revised design, inserted at the Maid of Amsterdam’s feet, were the river gods Amstel and IJ: the same waters flowing through the two pumps to be installed in the town hall’s inner courtyards. Fremantle suggested that the models for each pump – including the present model – were initially to be executed as life-size bronzes, but that these plans were discarded in 1664 due to the excessive cost.²¹ Whatever the case may be, the present sketch is the liveliest, freely modelled design of Quellinus’s known models, representing a stage in the sculptural design process for which relatively few other examples from this period have been preserved in the Netherlands.

Frits Scholten, 2024