Sculpted in relief. Despite minimal differences in the heights of the sides, the relief’s dimensions closely correspond to the circular measurements of the standard Roman oncia¹¹In the 17th century, the oncia in Rome measured 18.62 mm. Used for measuring objects, wood, buildings, etc., it served as the basis for all larger measurements of length.^[The palmo romano, piede romano, braccio romano, passetto, passo, and the canna architettonica. and palmo.²²A palmo or piede is 16 once romane and measures 297 mm.

The top right corner has broken off and is replaced.³³A photo taken of the Amsterdam relief in the onset of the 20th century in Demotte’s photo archive at the Louvre shows that the corner had already broken off by this time, see M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 278, no. 64a dér.2; M. Boudon-Machuel, ‘Du Quesnoy: Une monographie problématique’, in R. Dekoninck (ed.),Relations artistiques entre Italie et anciens Pays-Bas: Bilan et perspectives, Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Rome 2012, pp. 99-112, esp. pp. 108-09 (ill.). The modern ebony frame was made by Karsten Skwierawski, Gera in 2016.

…; the dealer Georges-Joseph Demotte (1877-1923), Paris and New York;⁴⁴George-Joseph Demotte (1877-1923) was a prominent Paris dealer of Belgian origin specialized in medieval French art. He owned a gallery at 27 Rue de Berri, as well as a second gallery in New York at 8 East 57th Street. Demotte was killed during a hunting expedition when accidentally shot by Otto Wegener, a friend and fellow dealer. See ‘Demotte Killed in Gun Accident. International Art Dealer Shot Dead While on Hunting Expedition in France’, The New York Times, 5 September 1923. Although acquitted of murder by a French court, Wegener was ordered to pay damages to Demotte’s family (see ‘Compensation’, Time 31 December 1923). Ownership of the gallery, with an estimated value of $2 million, was subsequently transferred by inheritance to his 17-year-old son, Lucien Demotte (d. 1934); see ‘Demotte Fils’, Time, 17 December 1923. At the time of his death, George-Joseph Demotte was involved in two different lawsuits. The first lawsuit was against Jean Vigoroux, Demotte’s former representative in New York, for embezzlement (see ‘Vigoroux vs. Demotte’, Time, 23 July 1923). A second lawsuit had been filed against the New York dealer Joseph Duveen for slander. Duveen was alleged to have described a medieval statuette sold by Demotte as a fake (see M. Secrest, Duveen: A Life in Art, Chicago 2005, p. 208). Five years prior to his death, Demotte was portrayed by Henri Matisse (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon). A photo of the present relief is preserved in the documentation of Demotte’s photo archive, showing that the top right corner had already broken off prior to this time (see M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 278, no. 64a dér.2; M. Boudon-Machuel, ‘Du Quesnoy: Une monographie problématique’, in R. Dekoninck (ed.),Relations artistiques entre Italie et anciens Pays-Bas: Bilan et perspectives, Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Rome 2012, pp. 99-112, esp. pp. 108-09 (ill.). For Demotte’s photo archive, see C. Vivet-Peclet, ‘Les sculptures du Louvre acquises auprès de Georges-Joseph Demotte: De la polémique à la réhabilitation?’, La revue des musées de France, Revue du Louvre, 3-2013, pp. 57-70. In the 1980s, the iconographic collection of the Department of Sculpture in the Louvre was augmented with approximately 2,500 glass-plate negatives documenting works (primarily medieval sculptures) sold by the art dealers Georges-Joseph and Lucien Demotte at the beginning of the 20th century. …; ? collection Pierre and Georges Androt, art and antiques dealers in Paris and Beaulieu sur Mer (since 1952), date unknown; to Pierre’s son, the dealer Pierre (‘Pierrick’) Androt, Beaulieu sur Mer, date unknown;⁵⁵The firm’s current owner (since 2008) is Pierrick’s son, Sébastien Androt, who changed the name to Androt & Fils. to the dealer Jeanne Agarini Sauvaigo, Nice, date unknown; acquired by Robert D’Anjou Durassow (b. 1957), Nice, in or before 2008; sale Paris (Aguttes, Drouot-Richelieu - Salle 16), 6 December 2013, no. 175, to the dealer C. Vecht, Amsterdam; from whom, €195,000, with the support of the Familie Van Poecke/Rijksmuseum Fonds and the J.W. Edwin vom Rath Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, 2014⁶⁶A previous owner before Vecht, Robert D’Anjou Durassow, purchased the work from the antiques dealer Agarini of Nice. Before this, Agarini had purchased the piece from the antiques dealer Pierre Androt of Beaulieu sur Mer, near Nice, who in his turn had inherited the relief from his father. None of these individuals had perceived or established any connection to Du Quesnoy. It was not until D’Anjou Durassow came across the oeuvre catalogue, in which reference was made to the Demotte collection, that he realized the object in his possession might have something quite exceptional in his possession (written communication Constant Vecht, 5 May 2014).

Object number: BK-2014-28

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Familie M. van Poecke/Rijksmuseum Fonds and the J. W. Edwin Vom Rath Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds

This Children’s Bacchanal is probably the best-known, most prolifically copied and highly discussed representation in the oeuvre of François du Quesnoy (1597-1643), the famed Flemish sculptor active in Rome. At first glance, the scene appears rather enigmatic, showing eight putti attempting to block the path of a he-goat by chasing him away with branches, a grotesque mascaron, and in the case of one putto, by making a grimace. The theme can be traced back to a classical Roman source: the second book of Virgil’s Georgics, which deals with the cultivation of young grapevines. Virgil cautions that one must protect the vulnerable young shoots of the grape against the voracity of livestock, and specifically that of sharp-toothed goats and he-goats. In these written passages, the author introduces a play on words involving the Latin term tener, which can mean either ‘soft, fragile’ or ‘young baby, young shoot’. In the present relief-carved version of the scene, Du Quesnoy has visualized this wordplay in the form of small plump putti, rendered with an extraordinary softness in sculpted marble.⁷⁷A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34; C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill/London 2001, pp. 66-67. For Du Quesnoy’s use of pure white marble – the equivalent of Parian marble from antiquity – see E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, pp. 27, 148, 164-65. In the given context, these soft-skinned infants (teneri) function as small Bacchoi, helpers and followers of the wine god Bacchus. One of them – the standing boy making a grimace – even wears a wreath of ivy in his hair. The diminutive bacchants are responsible for harvesting the grapes threatened by the he-goat. As such, Du Quesnoy’s scene refers to the age-old mythological enmity between goats and wine grapes – a theme repeatedly described and depicted in antiquity. In the end, the he-goat shall pay for his indulgence by penalty of death, when slaughtered for sacrifice during a ceremony traditionally held on an altar dedicated to Bacchus.

Scenes comparable to that of the present marble relief are found on Roman sarcophagi.⁸⁸P.P. Bober and R. Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture: A Handbook of Sources, London/Oxford 1986, nos. 85 I and IV; E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, fig. 42. One example that was certainly in Du Quesnoy’s close proximity is a classical sarcophagus relief held in the collection of one of his earliest patrons, Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani.⁹⁹C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill/London 2001, fig. 55. The Roman relief displays a number of motifs identical to those found on Du Quesnoy’s marble: jocular, naked children playing among baskets of fruit, as well as a grotesque faun’s mask – possibly a Roman larva, but more likely a so-called oscilla, which Virgil describes as an object hung in a tree that, when moved by the wind, served to scare off goats. In the sixteenth century, the theme of child bacchants appearing together with a goat was a favourite of medallists and engravers, e.g. the printmaker known as Master of the Die, whose works were based on inventions of Raphael.¹⁰¹⁰C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill/London 2001, figs. 51, 71. Du Quesnoy also became involved in this tradition, as did the French painter Nicolas Poussin. Both artists – good friends who shared a passion for a pure form of classicism (la gran maniera greca) – began to explore the theme of child bacchants with the he-goat circa 1626. Two of Poussin’s paintings from this period feature putti riding a goat or attempting to harness the animal to a small triumphal car.¹¹¹¹C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill/London 2001, figs. 53, 54. A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34. E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, p. 52 and figs. 39, 40.

The specific motif of the seated putto holding a larva or oscilla before his face – occurring both in Du Quesnoy’s relief and Poussin’s painting – can also be traced back to a tradition with antique roots. The motif enjoyed renewed interest in the fifteenth century, and in the eighteenth century, it became a highly cherished theme.¹²¹²E. Leuschner, Persona, Larva, Maske, Ikonologische Studien zum 16. bis frühen 18. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt am Main 1997; C. Dempsey, Inventing the Renaissance Putto, Chapel Hill/London 2001, p. 99. The finest example in fact comes from Du Quesnoy’s direct environs: an antique Roman statue of a putto holding up a mascaron while extending his arm through its open mouth, restored circa 1627-1628 by Alessandro Algardi, a fellow sculptor in Rome.¹³¹³F. Scholten and G. Swoboda (eds.), Caravaggio-Bernini: The Early Baroque in Rome, exh. cat. Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2019-20, no. 79. Masked putti are representative of the child-like and somewhat comical notion that, hidden behind the oversized mask, a child might be capable of scaring off a much larger animal or person.¹⁴¹⁴Scholten in F. Scholten and G. Swoboda (eds.), Caravaggio-Bernini: The Early Baroque in Rome, exh. cat. Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2019-20, p. 271. For the pose of his seated marble putto, Du Quesnoy turned to Titian’s renowned Adoration of Venus, then preserved at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome and a painting valued above all for its lively rendering of precocious little Erotes. In their biographies on Du Quesnoy, both Bellori and Passeri write explicitly of how, after having studied this painting, the sculptor transformed Titian’s painted putti into figures modelled in clay: ‘Titian expressed admirably putti of a more tender age and surpassed all others in delicacy. François fell in love with them and translated them into various groups in mezzo-relievo, and together with Nicolas Poussin, modelled them in clay.’¹⁵¹⁵Translation from E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, p. 44. Inspired by Titian, but also possibly putti on antique sarcophagi,¹⁶¹⁶E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, fig. 41. Cf. also the sitting putti with stage masks adorning the corners of a sarcophagus with a scene of the Calydonian boar hunt in the Musei Capitolini, Rome, inv. no. 917. Du Quesnoy introduced his own innovative putto type in sculpture known as the putto moderno, which earned him both the praise of his contemporaries and the moniker fattore dei putti.¹⁷¹⁷A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. pp. 211-12. M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, pp. 45-46.

The distinction between Du Quesnoy’s putto and the traditional putto antico of antiquity and the Renaissance lies in proportion and size. As the sculptor’s pupil and biographer Boselli remarked in his treatise on sculpture: not to be confused with toddlers, Du Quesnoy’s modern putti are instead pudgy, innocent babies, with extraordinarily large heads, round bellies and fleshy baby fat on their arms and legs. In real life, such creatures would be incapable of undertaking tasks of any complexity, but with Du Quesnoy– in imitation of Titian – the collective endeavour of driving off a goat falls well within the children’s grasp. Boselli admits that in doing so, the sculptor breaks both with decorum and the scene’s representation of reality. From his standpoint, however, this break is acceptable: their plumpness, innocence and behaviour these babies to more adequately express the concept of tenerezza (softness) as a means to stir and lighten the heart of the beholder.¹⁸¹⁸A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. pp. 212-13 and 221-23. Boselli’s ‘intuitive’ observations are in fact supported by findings obtained from twentieth-century ethology, including research conducted by Konrad Lorenz.¹⁹¹⁹See J.B. Bedaux, ‘From Normal to Supranormal: Observations on Realism and Idealism from a Biological Perspective’, in R. Woodfield (ed.), Gombrich on Art and Psychology, Manchester/New York 1996, pp. 171-95, esp. pp. 175-86. The softening of the stone from which these putti were sculpted even gave Bellori cause to observe that Du Quesnoy’s scenes ‘looked much more like milk than of stone’ (sembrando essi più tosto di latte che di macigno).²⁰²⁰A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. p. 216. Yet the sculptor also managed to maintain a balance, so that his children still possessed a certain nobleness despite their roundish corporeal forms, a quality which many of his followers were less successful in achieving.²¹²¹A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. p. 218. Colantuono observed that this concetto of softness encountered in the work of Titian, Poussin and Du Quesnoy also coincided with the flourishing interest in the lyrical expression of ‘soft’ sentimentality in Italian poetry of the same period, particularly in the work of Poussin’s close friend Giambattista Marino (1569-1625).²²²²A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. p. 211. Both this poetic sentimentality and the softness of Du Quesnoy’s putti may therefore be interpreted as expressions of a universal idea of softness.²³²³A. Colantuono, ‘Titian’s Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque Rome’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 3 (1989), pp. 207-34, esp. p. 232.

A substantially larger version of the composition exists in marble, a relief unanimously accepted as an autograph work in the art historical literature (Rome, Doria Pamphilj, measurements 62.5 x 87.5 cm; excluding the integrally carved frame, 56 x 81 cm). This marble indeed displays the same high quality and sensitive finishing associated with Du Quesnoy, in spite of the highly abraded, damaged surface due to years of exposure in the open air. This relief also has its own integrally carved marble frame. Also known is a small-scale version (material unknown, but probably identical in size to the present work) held at the Palazzo Rondinini on the Roman Via del Corso up until the early nineteenth century. This work might very well have come directly from the artist himself, as Du Quesnoy was commissioned to restore an antique fragment of a faun for Alessandro Rondinini (d. 1639) in around 1630-35. Also known are numerous copies and variants executed in bronze,²⁴²⁴Dresden, Skulpturensammlung, 21.3 x 37.2 cm, see M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 277, no. 64a ex.3); Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 21.6 x 37.3 cm; Paris, Petit Palais, coll. Dutuit, inv. no. SDUTO1329, 21 x 37 x 3 cm, see A. Jacobs and S. Vézilier, Fascination Baroque: La Sculpture Baroque Flamande dans les Collections Publiques françaises, exh. cat. Cassel (Musée départemental de Flandre) 2011-12, no. 17; the dealer M. Knoedler & Co., New York (in 1968), 22 x 37.5 cm. For the last (and probably the best) cast, see The French Bronze 1500-1800, sale cat. New York (Knoedler & Co.) 1968, no. 67; sale London (Christie’s), 18/19 September 2013, no. 443 (former coll. Sir Albert Richardson); sale London (Christie’s), 8 December 2015, no. XX (reworked with added details in the foliage and elsewhere). The dimensions of these bronzes are approximately 10% smaller than the present marble due to shrinkage occurring during the moulding and firing stages. marble,²⁵²⁵St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, old copy, but enlarged to the right, 45 x 84/96 cm, see S. Androsov, Museo Statale Ermitage: La Scultura Italiana dal XVII al XVIII Secolo: Da Bernini a Canova, coll. cat. St Petersburg (State Hermitage Museum) 2017, no. 10. An original, albeit rather lumpish variant is attributed to the English sculptor William Collins (1721-1793), see D. Bilbey and M. Trusted, British Sculpture 1470-2000, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, no. 93. terracotta²⁶²⁶Sketch drawings of two terracotta reliefs of this same type were made by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the margins of the second volume of the catalogue accompanying the sale of the Prince de Conti’s collections (March 1779, nos. 279, 280), accompanied by the inscription par La Rue, d’après François Le Quesnoy, Flamand (by La Rue, after François Le Quesnoy, Fleming). Second, the catalogue for the sale of the Thouard collection in June of that same year also lists an enfants jouant avec une chèvre, bas relief en terre cuite par La Rue (Infants Playing with a Goat, bas-relief in terracotta by La Rue); see The French Bronze 1500-1800, sale cat. New York (Knoedler & Co.) 1968, no. 67. Cf. J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 307 (inv. no. BK-AM-52-7, attributed to Artus Quellinus I). and ivory.²⁷²⁷M. Trusted, Baroque & Later Ivories, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2013, no. 101 (1061). See also J. Kappel, Elfenbeinkunst im Grünen Gewölbe zu Dresden, coll. cat. Dresden (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) 2017, no. III.5 (beer tankard based on Du Quesnoy’s relief, as ‘Netherlandish’, but more likely German, with a late-17th-century Augsburg mounting). Furthermore, the numerous children’s bacchanals by Gerard van Opstal, see for example P. Malgouyres, ‘La collection d’ivoires de Louis XIV: L’acquisition du fonds d’atelier de Gérard van Opstal (vers 1604-1668)’, La Revue de Louvre et des musées de France 2007-5, pp. 46-54; P. Malgouyres, Ivoires de la Renaissance et des temps moderne: La collection du musée du Louvre, coll. cat. Paris 2010, nos. 68-73. See also ibid. nos. 106 (beer tankard by Johann Jakob Betzoldt), 111 (possibly a Flemish beer tankard in the style of Rombout Verhulst), and 288 (a 19th-century beer tankard in 17th-century style, with a noticeably large mascaron). While none are autograph works, they may possibly have been derived from an autograph terracotta or plaster,²⁸²⁸M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 360, p. 54: De plus, d’après le style des putti de ces reliefs on peut juger qu’il ne s’agit pas de copies de l’invention de Du Quesnoy mais qu’ils ont été réalisés à partir d’un modèle autographe du sculpteur. (...) Ne doit-on pas penser alors que la première version de la Bacchanale d’enfants avec une chèvre était de petites dimensions comme ces exemplares en bronze (...) ? (Furthermore, based on the style of the putti of these reliefs, one could judge that they are not copies of an invention by Du Quesnoy, but rather that they have been executed using an autograph model by the sculptor. Shouldn’t one conclude then that the first version of A Children’s Bacchanal with a Goat was small in size just like the bronze versions ...?). as suggested by the following entry in the sale catalogue for the collection of the French painter Coypel in January 1753: ‘A bas-relief in bronze perfectly well repaired, and executed after the model in terracotta by François Flamand in the cabinet of M. le baron de Thiers, and which depicts children playing with a goat, one of which covers the face with a mask for the purpose of frightening off his comrades: it is 7-and-a-half inches high by 13 inches wide’.²⁹²⁹M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 53 (note 246). The original terracotta model in the possession of Baron de Thiers is today unknown. The copies and imitations of the present relief often vary in size and composition. Invariably, these sculptures are stylistically weaker and finished with less refinement than Du Quesnoy’s autograph works. Most closely approaching the Amsterdam marble in dimensions and detailing are four bronzes,³⁰³⁰See above, note INVULLEN. which, judging by their identical form, are undoubtedly casts of plasters taken from the present relief or a preliminary study modelled in terracotta. These reliefs are nevertheless several centimetres smaller than the marble, with the composition more compacted on the right. Most also lack the sharpness of the original, a consequence of making casts of casts, resulting in a loss of detail and an increasingly diminished size due to repeated shrinkage. This indicates these works were cast relatively late, possibly in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.

What distinguishes the Amsterdam relief from all of the above-cited works is its astonishingly high quality, and more so in light of the small scale. With Du Quesnoy’s characteristic softening of the contours and surface – perhaps best described as a sfumato in sculpture – the relief acquires the qualities of an ivory work carved in marble. The children’s hair and goat’s hide are carved with a freedom and virtuosity far surpassing the mechanical and expressionless facture of the various copies. The result is a painterly quality – an impressionism avant la lettre – observable in the present relief, but also consistently encountered in Du Quesnoy’s larger-scale works, e.g. the putti adorning the tomb monuments in the Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome or the hair on his monumental St Susanna.³¹³¹F. Scholten, ‘Painterly Sculpture’, in F. Scholten and G. Swoboda (eds.), Caravaggio-Bernini: The Early Baroque in Rome, exh. cat. Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2019-20, pp. 30-44, esp. p. 40 and fig. 12; E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, fig. on p. 112.

The disparity in quality between the Amsterdam piece and the copies known today is best illustrated when examining the execution of the goat’s animal hide. On the bronzes, this detail consists of a striped surface, as if to delineate each individual strand of hair. On the marble, by contrast, the surface texture of the goat’s hide is effectively achieved by simple means of a few tufts of hair. One encounters a similar technique on the larger relief of the same scene in the Galeria Doria Pamphilj in Rome, e.g. the manner in which visible drill holes articulate the texture of the goat’s hide in an effort to create depth. Another positive deviation from most copies are the open-carved mouth and eyes of the mask in front of the seated putti’s face, visually allowing him to peer through the openings. The fastidious treatment of even the smallest detail likewise points to an autograph work. The mask on the larger marble relief is damaged, but one can still see the mouth in this case was also originally open-carved.

Surprisingly, despite the wide popularity of the Children’s Bacchanal in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, no small-scale relief by Du Quesnoy himself was known to exist prior to the discovery of the present marble relief. It was Bellori who stated that Du Quesnoy’s composition was initially modelled in plaster or clay (creta). Well informed in virtually every other matter, the sculptor’s biographer was clearly mistaken on this point: he himself also mentions that the very same work served as the model for a sculpture executed in porphyry, made by the Italian sculptor Tomaso Fedeli (1598-1658) for Cardinal Francesco Barberini and subsequently presented to King Philip IV of Spain.³²³²Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori e architetti moderni, Rome 1672, pp. 287-90: ‘He made a Bacchanal of the same size, with putti pulling by the horns and lashing a goat, featuring the Giuocco which is a child who places a mask on the face, and the clay model was imitated and sculpted on the porphyry by Tomaso Fedeli in Rome, called Tomaso of porphyry for his skill in working and modelling it with tenderness to perfection, such as this truly successful mezzo-relievo of Cardinal Francesco Barberini presented to Philip the Fourth, King of Spain, and preserved today in Madrid at the king’s palace.’ (Fece una Baccanale della medesima grandezza, con putti che tirano per le corna e sferzano una capra, figuratovi il Giuoco (sic) che è un fanciullo il quale si pone al volto una maschera, ed il modello di creta fu imitato e scolpito su ‘l porfido da Tomaso Fedele romano, chiamato Tomaso del porfido per la facilità sua nel lavorarlo e condurlo con tenerezza in perfezzione, come veramente riuscì questo mezzorilievo che dal signor cardinale Francesco Barberini fu donato a Filippo quarto re di Spagna en si conserva oggi in Madrid nel palazzo del re.). Transcribed by R. Deckers and F. Martin (eds.), Giovan Pietro Bellori: Vita di Francesco di Quesnoy & Vita di Alessandro Algardi, Göttingen 2019, pp. 22-24; see also E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, p. 49 and M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, nos. Oe.68a, b, a ex.1 and a dér. In reality, the porphyry-carved relief in question – preserved to the present day in Spain – concerns another important work by Du Quesnoy, The Battle between Eros and Anteros, and is in no way connected to his Children’s Bacchanal.³³³³Madrid, Museo del Prado, inv. no. E-300, see M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, fig. 38 and p. 293, no. Oe.68a dér.5. The earliest documented mention of the Children’s Bacchanal occurs in 1641, as recorded in a travel journal kept by the English sculptor Nicholas Stone Junior (grandson of the Amsterdam municipal sculptor Hendrick de Keyser). In Rome, Stone purchased various compositions cast in wax and plaster directly from the sculptor himself, as meticulously recorded in his notebook, which even mentions in what box each work was packed for transport back to England. In the month of November 1641, Stone’s notebook includes an entry listed under ‘Particulers in the box marked N’, concerning an object he describes as: ‘First one bassa-releiua of children playing with a goate [...] all of Sr Francisco’.³⁴³⁴W.L. Spiers, ‘The Note-Book and Account Book of Nicholas Stone’, Walpole Society 7 (1918-19), esp. p. 198. Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668), who spent several years working in Du Quesnoy’s studio in Rome, is also very likely to have returned to Flanders with a number of his teacher’s works. Listed among the estate possessions of Quellinus’s own brother (and heir), Erasmus Quellinus, were forty-three casts and modelled studies by ‘Francisco de Cannoy’, including a ‘bas-relief, red wax, cast’ (bacereleeff, roode wasch, gegoten).³⁵³⁵M. Fransolet, François du Quesnoy, sculpteur d’Urbain VIII, 1597-1643, Brussels 1942, p. 187. Additionally, the painter Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688), who worked for Vincenzo Giustiniani in Rome and circulated in Du Quesnoy’s immediate environs in the years 1629-35, possessed eleven sculptures by or after il Fiammingo, including ‘various bas-reliefs’ (unterschiedlichen Basse-relieven), all executed in Rome in marble, clay, plaster and bronze.³⁶³⁶M. Fransolet, François du Quesnoy, sculpteur d’Urbain VIII, 1597-1643, Brussels 1942, p. 187; F. Scholten, ‘Sandrart’s Philosophers on the “Amsterdam Parnassus”’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57 (2009), pp. 326-41. Lastly, Rubens’s letter to the sculptor, in which the painter thanks him for sending several plasters of his children’s figures, also conveys Du Quesnoy’s famed reputation in the north.³⁷³⁷R.S. Magurn, The Letters of Peter Paul Rubens, Cambridge (Mass.) 1955, letter no. 248.

Du Quesnoy’s renown outside Italy, and particularly in his native Flanders, is greatly attributable to casts of this kind made from his models. Following his death in 1643, the sculptor’s brother, Hiëronymus du Quesnoy, transported all of the remaining models to the Netherlands, giving an additional impulse to the further dissemination of Du Quesnoy’s inventions.³⁸³⁸P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 824-25. From the mid-seventeenth century on, the influence of the sculptor’s compositions can clearly be discerned in Dutch, Flemish and French painting. At the same time, plaster reproductions of Du Quesnoy’s models were being made on a regular basis. Zacharias von Uffenbach’s travel journal provides a detailed account of his visit to the home of the Amsterdam art collector Ten Kate on 19 March 1711. Works noted include both numerous casts made from De Quesnoy’s models but also original sculptures. Von Uffenbach goes on to mention that these casts were made by a local plaster founder on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam: ‘In the morning, we went to Mr. Lambert Tenkaaten, a Mennonite. [...] He first showed us a beautiful collection of bas-reliefs, casts, small and large sculptures [...]. The majority of small sculptures and bas-reliefs in Mr. Tenkaaten’s possession are by Canoi [= François du Quesnoy] made by the plaster founder in Calverstraet. Of these he has a large number, all very sharp and good. [...] He also showed us countless modelled original works by Canoi and by Francis [= Francis van Bossuit], exceptional among these was a very large bas-relief by Canoi’.³⁹³⁹Morgens fuhren wir zu Herrn Lambert Tenkaaten, einem Mennonisten. (…) Er zeigte uns erstlich einen schönen Vorrath von bas reliefs, Abgüssen, Bildern und Statuen (...). Die meisten kleine Bilder und bas reliefs, so Herr Tenkaaten hatte, sind von Canoi dem Gipsgiesser in der Calverstraet gemacht. Er hat deren eine grosse Anzahl, alle sehr scharf und gut. (…) Er zeigte uns auch etlicht poussirte Original-Bilder von Canoi und Francis, insonderheit war schön darunter ein bas relief von Canoi sehr gross; Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, vol. 3, Ulm und Memmingen, 1753-54, pp. 651-52 (19 March 1711).

Michael Sweerts’s painting The Embroiderer from circa 1648-50 demonstrates the exceptional value Du Quesnoy’s Children’s Bacchanal held for painters.⁴⁰⁴⁰Cologne, Unicef Germany, Collection Rau, inv. no. GR 1.8874, see A. Blühm and R. Schenk et al. (eds.), Natural Beauty van Fra Angelico tot Monet: Collectie Rau voor UNICEF, Munich 2013; for Sweerts and Du Quesnoy, see also L. Yeager-Crasselt, ‘Michael Sweerts/François Duquesnoy: A Flemish Paragone in Seventeenth-Century Rome’, Dutch Crossings 35 (2011), pp. 110-26. Seated left in a painter’s workshop is a woman embroidering. Amassed on the floor beside her is a large, carefully arranged pile of plaster casts, consisting mainly of heads and torsos made after classical sculptures. Prominently displayed in the middle is the Children’s Bacchanal, also evidently executed in plaster. Its form – a recessed scene with a flat edge – is identical to the Amsterdam marble relief. Not much later, Gerard Dou in Leiden began incorporating Du Quesnoy’s compositions in his paintings. The Children’s Bacchanal appears in Dou’s Doctor (1653, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), Violin Player (1653, Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, Vaduz), Trumpet Player (c. 1660-65, Musée du Louvre, Paris) and other works.⁴¹⁴¹P. Hecht, ‘Art Beats Nature, and Painting Does so Best of All: The Paragone Competition in Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcken’, Simiolus 29 (2002), nos. 3, 4, figs. 1, 3, 5; J. Finkel, Gerard Dou’s Violin Player: Music and Painting in the Artist’s Studio in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting, 2008 (thesis, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario), pp. 115-16. The correspondence between the Rijksmuseum marble and these painted representations by Dou and his contemporaries extends to the smallest detail. When comparing passages such as tree trunks and the treatment of the goat’s hide, it becomes apparent that the marble still possesses every detail otherwise lost in most of the later plaster casts. It therefore comes as no surprise that the four bronze versions cited above bear no trace of the original detailing.⁴²⁴²An undated etching in Brussels provides a fairly accurate print version of the relief. It appears to be rather directly based on this marble or its modello versus the derivatives in bronze or plaster, see M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, no. In.64a dér.1. At the start of his career, Du Quesnoy relied on plaster casts to broaden and reinforce his international reputation as an adherent of pure classicism in sculpture (la gran maniera greca) and a sculptor of fleshy bambini and scherzi. None of these very earliest plasters have survived to the present day.

The composition of the Children’s Bacchanal became increasingly popular among Leiden ‘fine painters’ of the generation succeeding Dou. In France and Flanders, renewed interest arose in the eighteenth century with artists like Desportes, Boilly and Marten Jozef Geeraerts, but also Chardin, who reproduced the scene three times as a painted trompe l’oeil in 1732. A painted trompe l’oeil variant by Piat-Joseph Sauvage (1744-1818) even shows the casting joins of the plaster relief.⁴³⁴³P. Hecht, ‘Art Beats Nature, and Painting Does so Best of All: The Paragone Competition in Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcken’, Simiolus 29 (2002), nos. 3, 4, figs. 18 (Chardin), 19 (Boilly); M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 276, and The French Bronze 1500-1800, sale cat. New York (Knoedler & Co.) 1968,, no. 67. Sale New York (Christie’s), 14 April 2016, no. 271 (Sauvage, with a tree added on the right side of the relief). For Geeraerts’s version in Lille (Palais des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. P.1011), see L. Packer and J. Sliwka (eds.), Monochrome: Painting in Black and White, exh. cat. London (National Gallery) 2017, no. 37 and pp. 127-29; a replica of this work by Geeraerts was offered by the dealer Rafael Valls Ltd at Tefaf Maastricht in 2019. A fairly literal, but somewhat reduced adaptation with seven instead of eight putti can be seen in a painting by Jan van Neck (1634-1714) from c. 1676, see sale London (Christie’s), 20 February 1981, no. 119. My thanks to Robert Schillemans (written communication 12 January 2016). An early daguerreotype made by Alphonse Giroux in 1839, preserved at the Biblioteca Comunale in Imola, also demonstrates the composition’s enduring popularity: visible at the top in mirror image (as with all daguerreotypes) is Du Quesnoy’s relief in plaster.⁴⁴⁴⁴My thanks to Ghislain Kieft for this information. Giroux was both related to Daguerre and one of his close assistants, see M. Bonetti and M. Maffioli (eds.), L’Italia d’Argento; 1839/1859: Storia del dagherrotipo in Italia, Florence 2003 pp. 221-22.

Frits Scholten, 2025

M. Boudon-Machuel, François du Quesnoy 1597-1643, Paris 2005, p. 278, no. 64a dér.2 (only referring to the Demotte photograph); M. Boudon-Machuel, ‘Du Quesnoy: Une monographie problématique’, in R. Dekoninck (ed.),Relations artistiques entre Italie et anciens Pays-Bas: Bilan et perspectives, Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Rome 2012, pp. 99-112, esp. 108-09 (ill.); Scholten in ‘Recent Acquisitions: Paintings and Sculpture’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 63 (2015), pp. 294-315, esp. pp. 300-01 (no. 3); Scholten in G.J.M. Weber (ed.), 1600-1700: Dutch Golden Age, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018, no. 53; F. Scholten and G. Swoboda (eds.), Caravaggio-Bernini: The Early Baroque in Rome, exh. cat. Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2019-20, no. 80; B. van der Mark, Artus Quellinus. Sculptor of Amsterdam exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace Amsterdam/ Rijksmuseum) 2025, pp. 71, 89, 211

F. Scholten, 2025, 'François Du Quesnoy, Eight Child Bacchants with a He-Goat (‘Children’s Bacchanal’), Rome, c. 1626 - c. 1630', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20020798