Bagpipe Player

Entry

The central figure of this oval plaquette is almost literally based on Giambologna’s known figurina of a sitting bagpipe player (fig. a). The youth is dressed as a shepherd, wearing a wide-brimmed hat on his head and a shoulder mantle over a long jacket with sleeves. His wide, loose buskins have slipped down around his legs, exposing his knees. Instead of seated on a tree trunk, as in Giambologna’s model, the bagpipe player in the Amsterdam relief sits on a barrel that has fallen over, from which some kind of drink (wine?) pours out. Three figures have been added to the original composition: a woman with long hair, who intimately embraces the musician, and two satyrs on either side, who musically accompany him playing on their own instruments: a transverse and a pan flute. The tops of trees visible in the background place the scene in a pastoral setting.

Giambologna’s bagpipe player was one of his most popular subjects, copied in bronze, porcelain (BK-NM-12400-239) and ivory.¹ As far as can be ascertained, the present relief is unique. By adding such elements as described above, the anonymous sculptor has reintroduced Giambologna’s innocent pastoral genre figure in amorous context with erotic connotations. In Netherlandish and Flemish genre art, the bagpipe (lullepijp in Old Dutch) was perfectly suited for such a purpose, as an instrument often assigned a phallic meaning thanks to its form.² The drink pouring out of the barrel beneath this shepherd boy only adds to the brazen atmosphere. The presence of satyrs, mythical beings known for their irrepressible lust, removes any doubt regarding the scene’s salacious nature.

The present plaquette can be situated in the Southern Netherlands on stylistic grounds,³ with the lewd nature perhaps pointing more precisely to Antwerp. Inspired by Flemish paintings and drawings by artists such as Adriaen Brouwer and David Teniers in that city, this farcical genre was also commonly adopted in sculpture, especially by Pieter Xaveri (cf. BK-2000-18), an artist who later took Leiden by storm, and Pieter Baurscheit the Elder (cf. BK-2006-19). A signed and dated terracotta sculptural group from 1673 by Xaveri in the Amsterdam Museum features a comparable bagpipe-playing figure.⁴

Bieke van der Mark, 2024