The Rijksmuseum Bulletin, volume 65 (2017), 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Two Bronze Tritons from Nicolaes Witsen’s Collection
Ruurd Halbertsma and Frits Scholten

It recently emerged that two bronze ‘doorknobs’ in the Rijksmuseum collection, decorated with Tritons blowing conch shells and with inlaid silver discs, came from the renowned collection of the Amsterdam merchant and burgomaster Nicolaes Witsen. They were listed in 1728 in the catalogue of the sale of his estate (in the Antiquiteyten section) and appear in an engraving in the third, enlarged edition of Witsen’s Noord en Oost Tartaryen of 1785. It was also possible to establish that they were not, as had long been thought, sixteenth-century objects, but Roman appliques dating from the first century AD. The pair probably came from a litter used to carry the body of a deceased to its burial place. The two pieces were recently transferred to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, where they have been reunited with other antiquities from Witsen’s collection.

A New Attribution to Jan van Scorel: The Portrait of Joost Aemsz van der Burch and the Artist’s Portrayals of ‘Great Lords of the Netherlands’
Molly Faries and Matthias Ubl

This article posits a new attribution to Jan van Scorel of the imposing, frontal portrait of Joost Aemsz van der Burch (c. 1490-1570), Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation, especially as compared with Scorel’s portrayal of Reinoud III van Brederode, Lord of Vianen (1492-1556), Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Other portraits by Jan van Scorel that are related in terms of patronage are also discussed, including Portrait of Janus Secundus (1511-1536), The Hague, Haags Historisch Museum; Portrait of a Man in a private collection in England; Portrait of Jean II de Carondelet (1469-1545), Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; Portrait of Joris van Egmond (1504-1559), Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; and the Portrait of a Man, Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation. These provide insights into Scorel’s development of portraiture on a more monumental scale, his distinction as a portraitist from his contemporary, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, and his clientele at courts in Breda, Mechelen and Brussels.

Fired Infills and Replacement Parts to Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum
Isabelle Garachon

There are many objects in historic ceramics collections, like the Rijksmuseum’s, that have replacement parts and infills. Strikingly, the materials and techniques employed to make these repairs in the past were rarely the same as those originally used in manufacturing the object. This was primarily because it is technically very complicated to make additions in ceramics ‒ clay shrinks and expands with each new firing. It also, however, requires specialist knowledge and skills to get the shape, colour and feel of a reconstruction or infill to match the original. There is limited information about this special restoration practice in the literature. This article aims to prompt further research into the technical and historical aspects of ceramic infills and replacements, particularly since they are becoming increasingly accepted as part of the history of the object.

Short Notice: Mariënbosch Plantation, formerly Meerzorg
Eveline Sint Nicolaas

Acquisitions: Prints and Drawings c. 1800
Erik Hinterding, Huigen Leeflang, Manon van der Mullen and Marijn Schapelhouman