Atlas, Model for a Statue on the West Facade of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square

Modelled and fired. The head was produced separately and mounted to the body after firing. Analysis by Hallebeek (ICN) in 1997 revealed the following: the discernible layer of white covering the model is not the remnant of a finishing layer, but the result of salts in the base material being transported to the surface, which then crystallize due to chemical reactions between components present and gaseous elements from the atmosphere (sulphur dioxide).¹¹See P. Hallebeek, Onderzoek naar oppervlaktelagen van drie terracotta beelden van Artus Quellinus de Oude, Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam (13 March 1997, report no. 97-107).

The Atlas is missing both arms from the armpits down, with the onset of the right arm spared. The wreath of leaves is damaged. Moreover, part of the left big toe has broken off, damage occurring between 1923 (a photo in the dossier shows that the toe was still fully intact) and whenever the other photos in the dossier were made (before 1973, at which time the Quellinus models collection was divided between the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Historical Museum). Cracks can be discerned at the right shoulder, the left ankle, the left shin and just below the right knee. A separate fist, preserved since 1975 in the Amsterdam Museum,²²Amsterdam Museum, inv. no. BA 2503, see M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 89. probably belongs to the lost right arm of this Atlas.

Commissioned by the City of Amsterdam, 1650/51;³³A list of works for which Quellinus was paid in four instalments between 6 January and 12 September 1651 includes a belt van een atlas 3 voet hooge (a sculpture of atlas 3 feet high) for 60 guilders) and noch eenen atlas tot meerder verbetering (another atlas for greater improvement) also for 60 guilders, see Stadsarchief Amsterdam (hereafter: SAA), archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 5. Also see no. 11, where the models are mentioned again as a eenen grooten atlas - 60 [gulden] and noch eenen tot meerder verbetereringe - 60 [gulden]. See H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. p. 48. from the artist,⁴⁴K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 104 (note 15): dewijl zijn werk lootse nu affgebroken wordt dat haer Edele [burgemeesters] sullen laten affhalen de modellen vande beelden die hij ten behoeve dezer Stede gemaeckt heeft (while his workshop is being closed, that her Noble [burgomasters] shall have the models of the sculptures that he made on behalf of this City collected). See also H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 62 (referring to A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138). transferred to the Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1664;⁵⁵H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 62-64. The models were initially kept in the Thesaurie Ordinaris (Treasury) of the town hall. Around 1700, most were moved to the art cabinet in the kunstkamer (art chamber) on the third floor, see Wegwyzer door Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Nicolaas ten Hoorn) 1713, p. 446. From 1768 on, the task of overseeing the models’ preservation was assigned to the Stadstekenacademie (City Drawing Academy), also located in the aforementioned kunstkamer. In 1769, academy director Cornelis Ploos van Amstel compiled an inventory of all sculptures in the art chamber. This inventory also included Quellinus’s models, see SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library), Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Notitie van Boetseersels en Pleisterbeelden enz bewaard wordende op de kunstkamer van het stadhuijs der stad Amsterdam (January 1769). From November 1796 to April 1806, the Stadstekenacademie was obliged to (temporarily) vacate the town hall art chamber on the orders of the French occupier. During this period, it is not known where the models were stored, though presumably they remained in the town hall, albeit without oversight. In April 1806, the models were moved to the rariteitenkamer (curiosity chamber), also called the Diplomatieke Bibliotheek (Diplomatic Library). transferred to the Stadstekenacademie (at two or three successive locations), Amsterdam, 1808;⁶⁶The collection was moved in 1808, when Louis Napoleon took up residence in the town hall. H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 67-68. See also SAA, archive 265 (Stadstekenacademie), inv. nos. 1-4 and 6-54. transferred to the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (old Exchange of Hendrick de Keyser), Amsterdam, 1821;⁷⁷H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 70, referring to SAA, archive 265 (Stadstekenacademie), inv. no. 4 (minutes of 1818-1821). transferred to the Oude Mannenhuis, Amsterdam 1837;⁸⁸H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 70-71. See also SAA, archive PA 681 (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten), inv. no. 7. transferred to the Town Hall at the Prinsenhof, Amsterdam, 1878;⁹⁹H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp.  p. 72. See also SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library). on loan to the museum, since 1887¹⁰¹⁰See SAA, archive H. 86.002 (Library).
or
Commissioned by the City of Amsterdam, 1650/51;¹¹¹¹A list of works for which Quellinus was paid in four instalments between 6 January and 12 September 1651 includes a belt van een atlas 3 voet hooge (a sculpture of atlas 3 feet high) for 60 guilders) and noch eenen atlas tot meerder verbetering (another atlas for greater improvement) also for 60 guilders, see Stadsarchief Amsterdam (hereafter: SAA), archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 5. Also see no. 11, where the models are mentioned again as a eenen grooten atlas - 60 [gulden] and noch eenen tot meerder verbetereringe - 60 [gulden]. See H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. p. 48. from the artist,¹²¹²K. Fremantle, ‘The Fountains Designed for Van Campen’s Amsterdam Town Hall and Quellien’s Models for Them’, Album discipulorum aangeboden aan J.G. van Gelder ter gelegenheid van zijn 60ste verjaardag (Utrechtse Kunsthistorische Studiën 7), Utrecht 1963, pp. 101-18, esp. p. 104 (note 15): dewijl zijn werk lootse nu affgebroken wordt dat haer Edele [burgemeesters] sullen laten affhalen de modellen vande beelden die hij ten behoeve dezer Stede gemaeckt heeft (while his workshop is being closed, that her Noble [burgomasters] shall have the models of the sculptures that he made on behalf of this City collected). See also H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 62 (referring to A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138). transferred to the Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1664;¹³¹³The Prudentia (BK-AM-51-6) and one of the two Atlas-models (BK-AM-51-7 or -8) were stored separately from the other Quelliniana for a long time: they remained in the Thesaurie Ordinaris and were never transferred to the kunstkamer. In April 1806, the models were moved to the rariteitenkamer (curiosity chamber), also called the Diplomatieke Bibliotheek (Diplomatic Library) and subsequently transferred to the rariteitenkamer of the town hall in the Prinsenhof, after which they were given in long time loan with the other Quelliniana to the newly opened Rijksmuseum in 1887, see H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 62 and 67-73. transferred to the Town Hall at the Prinsenhof, Amsterdam, 1808;¹⁴¹⁴H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 69, referring to a list compiled and signed by Arend Fokke Simonsz in 1808, with works which were transferred from the Thesaurie to the new rariteitenkamer in the Prinsenhof. See SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library), A. Fokke Simonsz, Aanteekeningen betreffende de voornaamste Oudheden der stad Amsterdam [...], Amsterdam, 20 January 1808. on loan to the museum, since 1887¹⁵¹⁵See SAA, archive H. 86.002 (Library).

ObjectNumber: BK-AM-51-7

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

The great wealth and might of the city Amsterdam – the most important merchant city of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century – manifested itself in grand public works and countless other public and private buildings. This was especially true of the new town hall on the Dam Square, for which initial plans were already being made as early as 1639. The building’s design was aimed to reflect the power and prosperity that Amsterdam had come to acquire since the closing of the Scheldt in 1585, an event that cost Antwerp its leading economic position in the Low Countries.¹⁶¹⁶P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, pp. 21-22. The existing town hall, which dated back to the Middle Ages, had become too small to accommodate the rapidly growing civic governmental apparatus and was therefore to be replaced by a new and spacious ‘urban palace’. To carry out this ambitious plan, the city’s burgomasters chose the architect Jacob van Campen (1596-1657).¹⁷¹⁷P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, p. 36.

In its design, decoration and style, the new Amsterdam town hall was to glorify both the city and its governing council by mirroring illustrious examples from antiquity and its own day: the ancient Roman Republic and the modern Republic of Venice.¹⁸¹⁸K. Fremantle and W. Halsema-Kubes, Beelden Kijken: De kunst van Quellien in het Paleis op de Dam/Focus on Sculpture: Quellien’s Art in the Palace on the Dam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace) 1977, p. 9; F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, p. 15. Designated as the central themes were the three mainstays of Amsterdam’s economic success: good and fair governance, peace and prosperity. The Amsterdam city regents were bestowed the honorary title of vredesvader (father of peace), an appellation alluding to the seminal role these men played in negotiating the Peace of Münster, the treaty of 1648 that ended the war with the Spanish and signalled a new period of unparalleled prosperity.¹⁹¹⁹K. Fremantle and W. Halsema-Kubes, Beelden Kijken: De kunst van Quellien in het Paleis op de Dam/Focus on Sculpture: Quellien’s Art in the Palace on the Dam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace) 1977, p. 16. Through the classicist style of its architecture and the themes depicted in painted and sculptural decoration, this new monumental addition to the city was meant to convey Amsterdam’s standing as a worthy successor to ancient Rome, the geographic source of the Roman Republic’s past power and glory.²⁰²⁰P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, p. 68. Albeit less explicitly, Amsterdam also wished to mirror itself on the Republic of Venice. Both cities had begun as fishing villages and grown to become powerful merchant centres with international allure. Both cities also boasted a stable government firmly grounded on republican principles.²¹²¹F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, p. 14. Lastly, the decoration programme of the new Amsterdam town hall drew a parallel between the Israelites in the Bible and the present-day inhabitants of the Dutch Republic. Just as the Israelites – also long oppressed by a heathen religion – were led out of Egypt, so too had the Dutch liberated themselves from the yoke of the Spanish king and Catholic idolatry. The inhabitants of the Dutch Republic had God to thank for their freedom and fortune.²²²²P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, p. 68. All of these associations were to be unified in the new town hall’s realization, made manifest for both the city’s own burghers but also countless visitors from abroad.

In 1648, the Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) – then one of the most successful and talented sculptors in the Low Countries²³²³Prior to travelling to Italy around 1635, Quellinus had already produced work for Stadholder Frederick Henry, see K. Fremantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959, pp. 133-34. Upon returning to Antwerp in 1639, his career took off. One important commission he received, just prior to moving to Amsterdam, was a monumental tomb for Count Engelbert van Immerzeel and Helena van Montmorency (Bokhoven, Sint-Antonius Abtkerk), see F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 9-10. – was hired to devise the sculptural programme of the planned town hall. Having been trained as he sculptor by his father in the Baroque milieu of Rubens in Antwerp, Quellinus travelled to Rome in 1635, where he entered the studio of the Flemish sculptor François du Quesnoy (1594-1643).²⁴²⁴K. Fremantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959, p. 147. In the words of Du Quesnoy’s biographer, Sandrart: ‘Quellinus made himself very useful when in Rome and there he studied the art of Antiquity with success.’²⁵²⁵Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste (ed. C. Klemm), Nördlingen 1994 (original ed. Frankfurt 1675-79), p. 351; K. Fremantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959, p. 148. See also C. Theuerkauff, ‘Enkele kanttekeningen bij Artus Quellinus en de ‘antiche Academien’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 50 (2002), pp. 308-19, esp. p. 310. Accordingly, the sculptor’s work displays both elements of Du Quesnoy’s austere Classicism and Rubens’s Baroque. Yet the Amsterdam burgomasters’ decision to place the town hall’s sculptural decoration in Quellinus’s charge was not simply based on his style and qualities as a sculptor: his international experience, knowledge of antique sculpture and ability to run a large studio were also important factors.²⁶²⁶F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, p. 12.

The architect of the planned town hall, Jacob van Campen, was ‘artistic director’ of the decoration programme of the building’s exterior and interior in close consultation with his patrons. A number of fairly primitive pen-and-ink sketches and discernible details on the wooden, scale-model maquette show that, especially in this regard, Van Campen had very clear ideas of his own.²⁷²⁷H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. pp. 40-41. Quellinus’s task was to transform these ideas and simple sketches into clear and detailed three-dimensional designs. Several terracottas in the Rijksmuseum illustrate this specific stage of the design process. Presented for approval to both Van Campen and the burgomasters charged with making the final decision, these models can be described as vidimi (vidimus (Lat.) = we have seen) in the purest sense. A subsequent stage in this process entailed the detailed realization of these sketch models into working models – scale models, possibly followed by so-called modelli grandi – to be used in the studio for the final execution of monumental sculptures in marble and bronze.

Given the monumental scale of sculptural production accomplished in a relatively short period of time, Quellinus is certain to have had a large workshop to accommodate his many assistants. While information regarding the distribution of tasks remains scant, the diverse modelling on the surviving terracottas rules out the possibility of a single sculptor working on his own. Variations in the level of finishing can also be observed. The first group of terracottas can be described as bozzetti: loosely modelled sketches functioning as preliminary, plastic explorations of a theme or composition (cf. BK-AM-51-10). The second group consists of finished modelli – the aforementioned vidimi – from which the cast replicas were made that served as models in the studio. This category of works can sometimes be identified as such by measuring marks: points, lines and grids drawn in the wet clay to facilitate the design’s reproduction and enlargement in marble or bronze.²⁸²⁸H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. pp. 42-43. The third and final group consists of various replicas likewise made in Quellinus’s workshop but ultimately destined for the free market, e.g. as council members’ gifts to friends or as souvenirs privately commissioned by the burgomasters and their retinue to commemorate their role in the building of the town hall.²⁹²⁹H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. p. 44.

This Atlas is one of the terracotta sketches and models made by the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) and his assistants in preparation for the sculptural decoration of the new Amsterdam town hall, today the Royal Palace on the Dam Square (for an extensive history of the town hall, its significance and decoration programme, see ‘Context’). After the project’s completion, Quellinus’s Amsterdam studio was closed in 1664. At this time, the city’s burgomasters ordered that all of the remaining works and presentation models be transferred to the new town hall. With this move, the ensemble of fifty-one pieces officially became the property of the city of Amsterdam.³⁰³⁰A.W. Kroon, Het Amsterdamsche stadhuis (thans Paleis), 1625-1700: Zijne geschiedenis naar onuitgegeven officiële bronnen bewerkt, Amsterdam 1867, p. 138. A number were transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1887/88 on a long-term basis. All other works are today preserved at the Amsterdam Museum.

This terracotta Atlas is one of two surviving scale models for the bronze statue that stands at the apex of the west pediment of the Amsterdam town hall (for the other model, preserved in the Amsterdam Museum, see BK-AM-51-8).³¹³¹Listed in the municipal account books is een beldeken van een atlas anderhalve voet hooge (a statuette of an atlas one-and-a-half feet high) for fifteen guilders. See SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, nos. 5 and 11. It remains unclear whether this is the same statuette mentioned in Ploos van Amstel’s Notitie of 1769. The small Atlas statuette is possibly the same as what Ploos described as a ‘sitting Atlas’, see SAA, H. 86.003 (Library), Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Notitie van Boetseersels en Pleisterbeelden enz bewaard wordende op de kunstkamer van het stadhuijs der stad Amsterdam (January 1769). In classical mythology, Atlas is described as the leader of the Titans during their battle with Zeus. The Titans were defeated, with Atlas banished to the western edge of Gaia (the Earth) and sentenced to bear the heavenly firmament’s weight on his shoulders for all eternity. In his role as Atlas Telamon (Enduring Atlas), he is the physical embodiment of the column that permanently separates the sky from the earth.³²³²D.P. Snoep, ‘Van Atlas tot Last, aspecten van de betekenis van het Atlasmotief’, Simiolus 2 (1967), pp. 6-22. On the west facade of the Amsterdam town hall, Atlas is flanked left (north) by Temperantia (Temperance) and right (south) by Vigilantia (Vigilance). Crowning the building’s east facade – the side facing Dam Square – is the statue of Peace, flanked right (north) by Justitia (Justice, cf. BK-AM-51-5) and left (south) by Prudentia (Prudence, cf. BK-AM-51-6).³³³³Listed in Allard de la Court’s inventory, from 1749, is a Vreedebeelditje, met beyde de armen omhoog (Peace statuette, with both arms raised) that came from the estate of De la Court’s uncle, Groenendijk, appraised at seven guilders. Included in the same inventory is an Atlas sonder weereldkloot op sijn hooffd (Atlas without the world ball on his head) with an estimated value of nine guilders, see T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols., Leiden 1986-92, vol. 2, p. 461. Cornelis Ploos van Amstel also mentions an Atlas, without further elucidation, see SAA, archive H. 86.003 (Library), Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Notitie van Boetseersels en Pleisterbeelden enz bewaard wordende op de kunstkamer van het stadhuijs der stad Amsterdam (January 1769), unpag., nos. B and WW. Collectively, the statues’ message reads: Universal Peace, in Heaven and on Earth, is solely possible through these four virtues.³⁴³⁴For an alternative, but entirely implausible interpretation of the Atlas as a symbol of the transfer of power, see M. Hell, ‘Een gebreidelde Atlas en zijn hemelkloot: De geschiedenis van een stadhuisbeeld’, Oud Holland 129 (2016), pp. 131-48. The Hemony brothers cast the bronze Atlas in 1663. The heavenly sphere he carries is a wooden construction covered in copper plate.³⁵³⁵P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, pp. 103, 134 referring to SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 347 (Rapiamus, 1663), fol. 188. The full-scale wooden casting model of the Atlas is displayed above the west entry to the building’s central hall, the so-called Burgerzaal (Citizens’ Hall).³⁶³⁶In 1663, Quellinus received sesduijsent gl. op rekeningh vande modellen van de copere beelden, die gestelt sullen worden op het stadhuijs (six-thousand guilders on the account of the models of the bronze statues, to be erected on the town hall), referring to the casting models for the statues on the pediments of the town hall’s facades. P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, p. 103 (note 336).

Observable differences between the two scale models for the Atlas are the consequence of improvements made by the sculptor, as affirmed by the following entry in the town hall account books of 1651: Noch eenen atlas tot meerder verbetering (Another atlas for greater improvement).³⁷³⁷SAA, archive 5039 (Thesaurie Ordinaris), inv. no. 624, no. 5. The modelling of the torso on the Rijksmuseum terracotta – both arms having broken off entirely – is indeed substantially better than that of the model in the Amsterdam Museum (BK-AM-51-8). This improved version of the Atlas was possibly the terracotta model shown to the town hall’s patrons. Once approved, the same piece may also have served as a starting point for the working model eventually used to make an actual scale casting model for the bronze founder. This perhaps also explains why – unlike the Justitia and Prudentia – a slip layer was never applied to the present Atlas: it perhaps functioned as a scale model in Quellinus’s studio prior to the making of the casting model in or shortly before 1663.

The traditional sphere Atlas carries on his shoulders is missing on the Amsterdam terracotta; this was probably never present, given the technical complexity of such a construction when working in clay.³⁸³⁸In 1713, the Thesaurie makes mention of … een Atlas, torsende op zyn nek een Hemelsbol, zynde een konstig werkstuk (… an Atlas, bearing on his neck a Heavenly Sphere, being a masterful working piece), see Wegwyzer door Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Nicolaas ten Hoorn) 1713, p. 459. The cited ‘Heavenly Sphere’ may indicate that this description concerns the final bronze statue adorning the pediment of the town hall’s west facade, or that a (wooden or metal) sphere was perhaps eventually made for the Atlas model. The muscular, virtually naked bearer of the heavens stands firmly on his left foot, with his right leg slightly bent. His torso arches forward, reflecting the burden on his shoulders. This forward-leaning pose is balanced from the rear by a structural support – likewise modelled in clay – extending from the base to the underside of the buttocks. When viewed frontally, the support is worked in such a manner that it appears to be the loose end of Atlas’s loincloth. On the final bronze version adorning the pediment on the building’s façade, the support has been abandoned. In his treatment of Atlas’s back and buttocks, Quellinus clearly alludes to the Belvedere Torso, the fragment of an antique sculpture preserved in the collection of the Vatican Museum from the mid-sixteenth century and considered one of the most important sculptures of antiquity. There is little doubt the sculptor saw the torso with his own eyes when in Rome; even so, he very likely knew the sculpture prior to this time through the many reconstructions and drawings made by artists such as Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)³⁹³⁹Goltzius was in Italy in 1590-91. A drawing he made of the Belvedere Torso is today in the collection of the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, inv. no. K I 030. and Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).⁴⁰⁴⁰Rubens also drew the Belvedere Torso during his time in Italy from 1600 to 1608. The drawing is preserved at the Rubenshuis, Antwerp, inv. no. S. 109. Moreover, large numbers of plaster casts of the torso were also in circulation at this time.⁴¹⁴¹The English painter Hogarth wrote: ‘there are casts of a small copy of that famous trunk of a body to be had at almost every plaster-figure makers’, see W. Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty, London 1969 (repr. 1753), p. 64. Various sources confirm that it was common practice among sculptors in Rome – including Quellinus’s teacher, François du Quesnoy (1594-1643) – to make small replicas of the Belvedere Torso.⁴²⁴²F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven/London 1981, pp. 311-14.

In 2008, the British conceptual artist Simon Starling (b. 1967) had three terracotta copies of the Rijksmuseum Atlas made for the creation of an artwork for the Rijksmuseum’s new Ateliergebouw (the building housing the conservation and restoration studios and offices), a project carried out in the framework of the Dutch government’s so-called ‘percentage regulation’. On 18 April of that same year, the three terracotta copies were dropped from three different heights in the main hall of the newly constructed building. Per the artist’s conception, museum conservators then reassembled the various terracotta shards into three ‘restored’ figures of Atlas. Aptly named Drop Sculpture (Atlas) (BK-2012-37), the terracottas stand today in the precise location where the drop occurred. Starling wished to invite visitors to reflect on topics such as copy versus original, restoration versus authenticity, destruction versus reconstruction.⁴³⁴³M. Bouquet and N. Zonneberg, Drop Sculpture (Atlas), Simon Starling, Amsterdam 2008.

Iris Ippel and Frits Scholten, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 275a, with earlier literature; M. Carasso-Kok, Amsterdam Historisch: Een stadsgeschiedenis aan de hand van de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Bussum 1975, p. 88, fig. 155; K. Fremantle and W. Halsema-Kubes, Beelden Kijken: De kunst van Quellien in het Paleis op de Dam/Focus on Sculpture: Quellien’s Art in the Palace on the Dam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace) 1977, p. 81, no. 2; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Die von Artus Quellinus und Bartolomäus Eggers für Johann Moritz geschaffenen Skulpture’, in G. de Werd (ed.), Soweit der Erdkreis reicht: Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, 1604-1679, exh. cat. Cleves (Städtisches Museum Haus Koekkoek) 1979, pp. 213-32, esp. p. 220; D. Gamboni and G. Hermann (eds.), Emblèmes de la liberté: L’image de la république dans l’art du XVIe au XXe siècle, exh. cat. Bern (Historisches Museum Bern/Kunstmuseum Bern) 1991, pp. 259-60, fig. 111; in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, p. 195, no. 88; H. Vreeken, ‘Quellinus’ boetseersels voor het zeventiende-eeuwse stadhuis op de Dam’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 38-59, esp. pp. 45-48 and fig. 61f; H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75; P. 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, p. 839 (fig. 2); M. Bouquet and N. Zonneberg, Drop Sculpture (Atlas), Simon Starling, Amsterdam 2008; F. Scholten, Artus Quellinus: Sculptor of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 2010, p. 44, fig. 16; P. Vlaardingerbroek, Het paleis van de Republiek, Zwolle 2011, p. 134

I. Ippel and F. Scholten, 2024, 'Artus (I) Quellinus, Atlas, Model for a Statue on the West Facade of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam, 1650 - 1651', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24582