Sculpted. The reverse has been hollowed out.

The curl on the forehead has broken off; several points of damage on the socle.

Commissioned by the sitter, c. 1641;¹¹F. Scholten, ‘François Dieussart, Bust of Pieter Spiering (1595-1652), Silfvercrona till Norsholm, The Hague c. 1641-42’, in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam 2025. their son Johan Philip Spiering;²²I.M. Veldman, ‘Portrait of an Art Collector: Pieter Spiering van Silvercroon’, Simiolus 38 (2015-16), pp. 228-49, esp. p. 240. …; from the dealer Alavoine, Paris, to Heim Gallery, London, 1970; from which, with pendant, BK-1971-115-B, fl. 7,500 for both, to the museum, with the support of the Commissie voor Fotoverkoop, 1971

Object number: BK-1971-115-A

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum

This pair of marble bust portraits was sculpted by the Southern Netherlandish sculptor François Dieussart (c. 1600-1661) during his first years of activity in The Hague. Depicted are husband and wife Pieter Spiering (shown here) and Johanna Doré (BK-1971-115-B).³³Johanna Doré was the widow of the Amsterdam merchant Jan de Bommert (Bomartius). She remarried with Spiering on 13 April 1636, see B. Noldus, ‘An ‘Unvergleichbarer Liebhaber’: Peter Spierinck, the Art-Dealing Diplomat’, Scandinavian Journal of History 31 (2006), pp. 173-85, esp. p. 179 and I.M. Veldman, ‘Portrait of an Art Collector: Pieter Spiering van Silvercroon’, Simiolus 38 (2015-16), pp. 228-49. Spiering (also Spierinck) was from a well-known family of tapestry weavers in Delft. In 1635, he was named as the Swedish ambassador to the Dutch Republic, an appointment largely arising from his numerous business transactions with the Swedish royal house.⁴⁴B. Noldus, ‘An ‘Unvergleichbarer Liebhaber’: Peter Spierinck, the Art-Dealing Diplomat’, Scandinavian Journal of History 31 (2006), pp. 173-85, esp. pp. 179-80. Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) even made him her treasurer. Spiering himself was also a major collector of art and one of the first in the Republic to install a special art cabinet. In 1683, Pieter inherited a large collection of engravings by Dürer, Lucas van Leyden and others from his father, François Spiering, an Antwerp/Delft tapestry weaver. He also possessed a late medieval prayer nut described as a miniature wooden apple, that ‘opens in two pieces and opens again inside with four doors, made very artfully’.⁵⁵in twee stucken opgaet ende inwendich wederom met vyer deuren opengaat, seer kunstich gemaeckt; J. van der Veen, ‘Delftse verzamelingen in de zeventiende en eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw’, in E. Bergvelt, M. Jonker and A. Wiegmann (eds.), Schatten in Delft: Burgers verzamelen 1600-1700, Zwolle/Delft 2002, pp. 46-89, esp. p. 61. Ernst Brinck also mentions the same prayer nut in handwritten annotations, Streekarchivariaat Noordwest-Veluwe, Stadsarchief Harderwijk, inv. nos. 2013-2061. arising from a viewing of Spiering’s collection around 1638: ‘2 apples carved from wood having the size of a fairly large apple; in the one, the life of Christ was very skilfully carved, in the other the passion of Christ; opened with small doors, so that one could see deep within; are worth many hundreds’.⁶⁶2 appels van hout gesneden van de groote van een tamelicken appel, in den eenen was seer constich gesneden het leven Chris(ti) in den anderen de passie Chris(ti), ging met deurkens open, soodat men diep daerin sien konde, sijn veel honderden waerdich. My thanks to Michiel Roscam Abbing for sharing this information (written communication, 14 January 2022).

Spiering likely came into contact with Dieussart in his capacity as an art agent acting on the behalf of the Swedish crown. This Flemish-Walloon sculptor began his career in Rome.⁷⁷M. Boudon-Machuel, ‘François Dieussart in Rome: Two Newly Identified Works’, The Burlington Magazine 145 (2003), pp. 833-40. At the request of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, Dieussart departed for London in 1636, charged with the task of restoring the classical sculptures in the earl’s collection.⁸⁸C. Avery, ‘François Dieussart (c. 1600-61): Portrait Sculptor to the Courts of Northern Europe’, in ibid., Studies in European Sculpture, vol. 1, London 1981, pp. 205-35, esp. pp. 206-11. Thereafter, he went on to build his reputation as a portrait sculptor working at the princely courts of England, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In July 1641, Dieussart arrived in the Netherlands from London accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the painter Gerrit van Honthorst.⁹⁹C. Avery, ‘François Dieussart (c. 1600-61): Portrait Sculptor to the Courts of Northern Europe’, in ibid., Studies in European Sculpture, vol. 1, London 1981, pp. 205-35, esp. pp. 211-27. Through the intermediation of Constantijn Huygens, the secretary of stadholder in The Hague, Dieussart first carved a portrait bust of Prince Frederick Henry, followed by portrait busts of Count Johan Maurits, Prince of Nassau-Siegen and the four Orange stadholders, all destined for the reception hall of the Mauritshuis in The Hague. In 1646, he was commissioned to carve life-size, full-length portraits of the same four stadholders. Upon its completion, this dynastic series was displayed in the main hall of Huis ten Bosch Palace, also in The Hague. Through Huygens, Dieussart was chosen to design a large tomb monument for Charles Morgan, the English commander of the stronghold Bergen-op-Zoom. This work was to become the first purely classicist tomb monument in the Dutch Republic.¹⁰¹⁰F. Scholten, Sumptuous Memories: Studies in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Tomb Sculpture, Zwolle 2003, pp. 113-43. These projects in and around the stadholder’s court ultimately paved the way to additional commissions for the sculptor. For instance, Lodewijk Huygens’s diary from 1652, made during a visit to Spiering’s residence in London, also mentions a ‘countenance of the Queen of Sweden in white marble by Francisquo kept in The Hague’.¹¹¹¹conterfeijtsel van de Coningin van Sweden in witte marber van Francisquo in Den Haegh gehouden; Lodewijck Huygens, The English Journal 1651-1652 (A.G.H. Bachrach and R.G. Collmer ed. and transl.), Leiden 1982, p. 192. This purportedly ‘lost’ portrait of Christina can be perhaps be identified as the unsigned bust – long erroneously interpreted as a portrait of Anne of Austria – previously preserved at Castle Howard until its sale in 2015.¹²¹²Sale London (Sotheby’s), 8 July 2015, no. 18.

Up to now, the portrait busts of Spiering and his wife have typically been dated to the years just preceding Dieussart’s departure for London in 1650. An annotation made by Ernst Brinck (1582-1649), mayor of Harderwijk and archaeologist, circa 1642 (and certainly before 1644), nevertheless confirms that at least the bust of Spiering himself would have been sculpted during the sculptor’s first years in the Republic: ‘Presently residing in The Hague is a Polish [native], being a highly skilled sculptor in alabaster; he has sculpted this Prince of Orange very skilfully in alabaster, pectore tenus, and for this he has been paid 2000 guilders. He has also sculpted the Resident Spiering in [the same material], very skilfully’. ¹³¹³My thanks to Michiel Roscam Abbing for this referral and transcription (written communication, 21 January 2022). Ernst Brinck’s annotations are preserved at the Streekarchivariaat Noordwest-Veluwe (Stadsarchief Harderwijk, inv.nos 2013-2061). The ‘Pool’ (Polish native) of which he speaks is likely a slip of the pen or erroneous transcription of Waal (Walloon). That Brinck applies the term albast (alabaster) as opposed to marble can be understood in terms of the transposing of these two materials, a mistake quite commonly made in the 17th century. Brinck’s use of the term tegenwoordich (presently) implies that Dieussart was still residing in The Hague at the time of the annotation was made: i.e. prior to the sculptor’s departure for Italy and Denmark, at the end of 1642 or the beginning of 1643 (see C. Avery, ‘Francois Dieussart (c. 1600-1661): Portrait Sculptor to the Courts of Northern Europe, Studies in European sculpture, London 1981, pp. 205-35, esp. p. 217). Consequently, the bust of Spiering can be dated between July 1641 and the end of 1642, but most likely in the latter year. Here Brinck refers to Dieussart’s half-length (pectore tenus) portrait bust of Prince Frederick Henry from 1641 (Schloss Wörlitz), while mentioning Spiering’s bust in passing.

The portraits of Spiering and his wife are rendered in the sculptor’s characteristically austere, rather dry classicist style. Dieussart based the male portrait on a now lost imperial Roman bust – the so-called ‘Vitellius’ – held in the Amsterdam Reynst collection since 1646 (RP-P-2016-591-53-1), from which lead casts were also made in the Republic.¹⁴¹⁴See J. van Gastel, ‘A fiammingo in Rome: Artus Quellinus and the Origins of the Northern Baroque Bust’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 64 (2016), pp. 120-39, esp. p. 128 and figs. 11, 12; also A.-M. S. Logan, The ‘Cabinet’ of the brothers Gerard and Jan Reynst, Amsterdam/Oxford/New York 1979, p. 188 (no. 27). For a lead copy after Bartholomeus Eggers, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 358a (BK-68-A, here as Caligula) and W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Bartholomeus Eggers’ keizers- en keizerinnenbusten voor keurvorst Friedrich Wilhelm van Brandenburg’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 36 (1988), pp. 44-53, esp. pp. 54-53. A lively cohesion between the two busts was achieved by having the faces of husband and wife turn towards one another. Dieussart’s application of this Italian stylistic motif, picked up during the period of his apprenticeship in Rome, is one reason why he was a much-sought sculptor north of the Alps. Joachim von Sandrart, who perhaps knew the sculptor himself even as far back as his days in Rome, was familiar with the present portraits, having seen them while in the Netherlands. The busts of Spiering and Doré are explicitly mentioned in Sandrart’s biography of Dieussart, published in his Teutsche Akademie of 1675: ‘also the countenance of the art collector Herrn von Spirings [sic] next to his wife / who is indeed equally worthy / to be depicted in hard marble stone in eternal commemoration / because of noble mind / great virtue / and proven to be an exceptional lover of the free and noble arts.’¹⁵¹⁵See J. van Gastel, ‘A fiammingo in Rome: Artus Quellinus and the Origins of the Northern Baroque Bust’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 64 (2016), pp. 120-39, esp. p. 128 and figs. 11, 12; also A.-M. S. Logan, The ‘Cabinet’ of the brothers Gerard and Jan Reynst, Amsterdam/Oxford/New York 1979, p. 188 (no. 27). For a lead copy after Bartholomeus Eggers, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 358a (BK-68-A, here as Caligula) and W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Bartholomeus Eggers’ keizers- en keizerinnenbusten voor keurvorst Friedrich Wilhelm van Brandenburg’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 36 (1988), pp. 44-53, esp. pp. 54-53. Sandrart also portrayed the art-loving Spierings himself, told in similar words as imparted in his autobiography.¹⁶¹⁶Joachim von Sandrart, Lebenslauf, Nuremberg 1675, p. 13: So hat Er auch den in aller Welt berühmten Schwedischen Abgesandten Herrn von Spiring samt seiner Gemahlin als unvergleichliche Liebhabere dieser Künste seher natürlich in Lebensgrösse gecontrafätet.

Frits Scholten, 2025

Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste, Frankfurt 1675-79, vol. 2, book 3, p. 350; A.R. Pelzer (ed.), Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675: Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, Munich 1925, p. 234; C. Avery, ‘François Dieussart in the United Provinces and the Ambassador of Queen Christina, Two Newly Identified Busts Purchased by the Rijksmuseum’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 19 (1971), pp. 143-64; C. Avery, ‘François Dieussart (c. 1600-61): Portrait Sculptor to the Courts of Northern Europe’, in ibid., Studies in European Sculpture, vol. 1, London 1981, pp. 205-35, esp. pp. 216-17 and figs. 15, 16; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 257, with earlier literature; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 12; J. Kiers et al., The Glory of the Golden Age: Dutch Art of the 17th Century: Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Art, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, pp. 243, 317 (no. 164a, b); A. de Koomen, ‘The World of the 17th-century Artist’, in J.P. Filedt-Kok et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1600-1700, coll. cat Amsterdam 2001, pp. 21-41, esp. p. 34 and fig. 33; J. van der Veen, ‘Delftse verzamelingen in de zeventiende en eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw’, in E. Bergvelt, M. Jonker and A. Wiegmann (eds.), Schatten in Delft: Burgers verzamelen 1600-1700, Zwolle/Delft 2002, pp. 46-89, 156-60, esp. pp. 61, 156; B. Noldus, Trade in Good Taste: Relations in Architecture and Culture Between the Dutch Republic and the Baltic World in the Seventeenth Century (Architectura Moderna 2), Turnhout 2004, p.103 and fig. 33; B. Noldus, ‘An ‘Unvergleichbarer Liebhaber’: Peter Spierinck, the Art-Dealing Diplomat’, Scandinavian Journal of History 31 (2006), pp. 173-85, esp. pp. 179-80; F. Scholten, ‘The Sculpted Portrait in the Dutch Republic 1600-1700’, in V. Herremans (ed.), Heads on Shoulders: Portrait Busts in the Low Countries 1600-1800, exh. cat. Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) 2008, pp. 41-51, esp. pp. 45-46, figs. 6-7; I.M. Veldman, ‘Portrait of an Art Collector: Pieter Spiering van Silvercroon’, Simiolus 38 (2015-16), pp. 228-49, esp. pp. 239-40; J. van Gastel, ‘A fiammingo in Rome: Artus Quellinus and the Origins of the Northern Baroque Bust’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 64 (2016), pp. 120-39, esp. pp. 128-29 and fig. 12