Object data
oil on canvas
height 152.5 cm × width 264.5 cm
depth 11.5 cm
Jan Tengnagel
Officers and Other Civic Guardsmen of the XIth District of Amsterdam, under the Command of Captain Geurt Dircksz van Beuningen and Lieutenant Pieter Martensz Hoeffijser
1613
Inscriptions
- date: Aº 1613
Technical notes
The herringbone canvas has been lined. Cusping is only vaguely visible at the bottom, but the tacking edges are intact and an imprint of the original stretcher running vertically through the centre of the painting and along the edges is present. The ground layer is a beige colour. The faces were painted first. The paint layers were applied quite roughly and rapidly.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: L. Sozzani, RMA, 21 February 2005
Condition
Fair. The painting is abraded throughout, and there are numerous pinpoint losses in both the paint and ground layers.
Conservation
- W.A. Hopman, 1879: placed on a new stretcher
- conservator unknown, 1952: cleaned and revarnished
Provenance
Commissioned by or for the sitters for the Handboogdoelen (headquarters of the archers’ civic guard); first mentioned in the Handboogdoelen, 1653 (‘Op de grootte sael [...] Aº. ... ter Sijden de andere sij van schoorsteen, Is Geurt Dirxz van Beuningen Capⁿ. en Lut. ... dit stuck is geschildert bij Tengnagel, namaels onderschout’);1 transferred to the town hall by 1841;2 on loan to the museum from the City of Amsterdam since 1885
Object number: SK-C-407
Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan Tengnagel (Amsterdam 1584 - Amsterdam 1635)
The son of a merchant, Jan Tengnagel was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 9 September 1584. He belonged to a noble family, the Gansneb-Tengnagels, that originated in the eastern Netherlands. It is not known from whom he received his training, but his style can be described as a variant, with exaggerated gestures and twirling drapery folds, of Lastman’s. The latter, however, was only approximately one year his senior. Elsheimer’s influence, especially in his landscape backgrounds, is also apparent. Tengnagel’s earliest dated painting is from 1610.3 According to his own testimony, recorded in 1632, Tengnagel was in Rome in the summer of 1608. By 1611 he had returned to Amsterdam, where in December of that year he married Meynsgen Symonsdr Pynas, the sister of Jan and Jacob Pynas. In 1612, he became sergeant of the civic guard company for the part of town (District XI) that included the St Anthonisbreestraat, the street where he then resided. Tengnagel served as dean of the St Luke’s Guild for two years beginning in 1616. As provost, he was responsible for discipline in four of Amsterdam’s civic guard companies between 1619 and 1625. His last dated paintings are from 1624, and it is likely that his civic functions led him to give up painting altogether. In 1625, he was appointed deputy sheriff, a lucrative job he held until his death. On 23 March 1635 he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk.
In addition to depicting religious and mythological scenes in Lastman’s mode, that is with relatively small figures set in landscapes, Tengnagel began to paint histories around 1615 with large-scale figures that occupy almost the entire picture plane. He worked in both modes simultaneously. Although his extant oeuvre is quite small, his choice of subject matter was the most varied of the Pre-Rembrandtists, and he is credited with introducing new themes into painting, such as The Race between Hippomenes and Atalanta. In addition to religious and mythological works, he painted allegories and portraits. Pure landscapes by Tengnagel are recorded in early auction catalogues and estate inventories, but none are known today. Tengnagel is one of the artists mentioned by Theodore Rodenburgh in his 1618 poem eulogizing Amsterdam. His only documented pupil was the otherwise unknown Laurens Hellwich, who trained with Tengnagel in and around 1615 for a period of two years.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
References
Schneider 1921; Tümpel 1991a, pp. 43-47; Bok in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 318-19
Entry
This portrait of 17 banqueting guardsmen from District XI was the only one produced for the Handboogdoelen, the headquarters of the archers’ civic guard, during the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609-21).4 Dated 1613, it is one of two civic guard pieces painted by Tengnagel. The other one, also executed for the Handboogdoelen about ten years later, has not survived.5
Around 1660, the four governors of the Handboogdoelen had Jacob Colijns (c. 1614/15-86) make drawings after all the portraits in their building, with inscriptions recording the names of the sitters.6 The identities of the guardsmen in the present painting are known thanks to the inscription on Colijns’s drawing after it (fig. a).7 The captain, Geurt Dircksz van Beuningen (1564-1633), is seated beside the table on the left, next to the very young ensign, Claes Bisschop (b. 5 December 1593). Like some of the other men, Van Beuningen wears an ornamental cuirass, but he is the only one shown wearing a hat. A prominent figure in Amsterdam, he was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, and a leader of the Remonstrants.8 Service in the civic guard was a prerequisite for future political power. When the painting was completed in 1613, Van Beuningen had already achieved the rank of colonel. In 1622, he obtained a seat on the city council and was first elected burgomaster in 1628. Van Beuningen lived in St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 57), close to District XI. The other guardsmen in the portrait, whose addresses could be traced, lived in the district itself.9 Seated next to him at the table is the lieutenant, Pieter Martensz Hoeffijser (1581-1647), a wealthy banker, who was appointed General of the Admiralty of Amsterdam in December 1613.10 He lived in St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 3).
As sergeant of the company, Tengnagel included his own portrait. He is the third from the right in the bottom row, holding a wine glass sideways to show that it is empty.11 Tengnagel lived near the St Anthonissluis, the lock situated at right angles to St Anthonisbreestraat.12 The man bending over and pointing at the cushion on a stool was another artist, Adriaen van Nieulandt (c. 1586-1658), who lived next to Lieutenant Hoeffijser in St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 5).13 Van Nieulandt and Hoeffijser lived across the street from the man on the far left in the top row, Hans van der Voort (St Anthonisbreestraat no. 2), a tailor by profession and brother of the artist Cornelis van der Voort.
There was already a long tradition of portraying civic guard companies banqueting when Tengnagel executed this painting. The theme was introduced in Amsterdam civic guard portraiture by Cornelis Anthonisz in his 1533 Banquet of Seventeen Members of the Crossbowmen’s Civic Guard, known as The Banquet of the Copper Coin.14 In Tengnagel’s painting, gestures, glances and actions emphasize the camaraderie and unity of the group. The fourth man from the left in the top row, for example, has his hand on the shoulder of the man before him, and Lieutenant Hoeffijser’s hand is placed on the hand of the man cutting bread. An unusual but not altogether unique gesture in civic guard portraiture, Adriaen van Nieulandt’s pointing at the cushion, has been given two interpretations by scholars. Riegl explained it as an invitation to the ensign to take a seat at the banquet.15 Tümpel rejected this interpretation, pointing to the old Dutch saying ‘op het kussen zitten’ (to sit on the cushion), which means to take on an important, usually governmental or administrative position. Van Beuningen had been promoted colonel in 1612, and the post of captain was therefore vacant.16 However, as Dudok van Heel has since pointed out, Adriaen van Nieulandt’s gesture is probably directed at Claes Bisschop, whose youthful age (when the painting was completed he was 19 or 20) indicates that he has just been made the company’s ensign.17 Because Tengnagel’s painting does not include a portrait of Van Beuningen’s successor as captain, as could very well also be the case in a 1599 guard piece including an unoccupied chair by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem,18 Dudok van Heel’s explanation is the more plausible one.
The rediscovery of Colijns’s reproductive drawing with the inscribed names of the sitters made it possible to identify the present portrait with the one listed by Gerard Schaep in 1653 in the Handboogdoelen showing Captain Van Beuningen and his men. Schaep recorded that Tengnagel had executed the painting. The attribution of the painting to Frans Badens that had been made before the rediscovery of Colijns’s drawing could, therefore, be laid to rest.19 The monumental, colourful figures shown close to the picture plane can be compared to those in some of Tengnagel’s history pieces, such as the 1615 Raising of Lazarus.20 The facial types, somewhat crude drapery style, and the emphasis on gestures are also similar.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
THE SITTERS, THEIR RANKS, OCCUPATIONS AND ADDRESSES
Bottom row from left to right
Claes Bisschop (1593-1637)
Ensign. St Anthonisbreestraat.
Geurt Dircksz van Beuningen (1564-1633)
Captain. Merchant. St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 57).
Pieter Martensz Hoeffijser (1581-1647)
Lieutenant. Receiver-General. St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 3).
Laurens Jansz van Lier (Embderland 1575-1661)
Cloth-maker.
Hendrik Sijbrantsz Voet (Deventer 1582-1635)
Surgeon.
Adriaen van Nieulandt (c. 1586-1658)
Painter. St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 5).
Jan Tengnagel (1584-1635)
Sergeant. Painter. St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 1).
Aert de Keyzer (Utrecht 1571-1630)
Timber merchant and cabinetmaker. St Anthonisbreestraat.
Top row from left to right
Hans van der Voort (Antwerp 1564-1624)
Tailor. St Anthonisbreestraat (no. 2).
Jan Cornelisz Meulen (1563-1638)
Timber merchant. Nieuwe Houtmarkt (no. 6, now Waterlooplein).
Gerrit Martsz Conijnenburgh (1567-?)
Cabinetmaker.
Willem Kick (Breda 1565-1647)
Lacquerer. Nieuwe Houtmarkt.
Heindrick Hogendorp (1587-?)
Cornelis Gerritsz (1582-after 1631)
Mast maker. Marken.
Laurens Laurensz van Baalen (1575-after 1637)
Carpenter. Nieuwe Houtgracht (no. 4).
Cosmo de Moucheron (c. 1588-before 1628 Moscow)
Merchant.
Pierre de Nimay (1573-?)
Brother-in-law of Cosmo de Moucheron. Probably also a merchant.
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 278.
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
Literature
Tümpel 1988, pp. 90-91; Van de Kamp in Haarlem 1988, pp. 365-66, no. 185, with earlier literature; Dibbits in Rome 2003, pp. 166-67, no. 27
Collection catalogues
1887, p. 5, no. 32 (as attributed to Frans Badens); 1903, p. 258, no. 2291; 1934, p. 276, no. 2291; 1976, p. 535, no. C 407; 2007, no. 278
Citation
J. Bikker, 2007, 'Jan Tengnagel, Officers and Other Civic Guardsmen of the XIth District of Amsterdam, under the Command of Captain Geurt Dircksz van Beuningen and Lieutenant Pieter Martensz Hoeffijser, 1613', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5561
(accessed 29 May 2024 01:36:59).