The Mechelen-born sculptor Louis Royer (1793-1868) went to Amsterdam in 1820 where he was assured of the protection of the stockbroker and art collector, Albertus Roothaan (1783-1847).¹¹Langendijk in G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, fig. 7. He helped the artist to obtain commissions and to exhibit his work at the Tentoonstellingen van Levende Meesters. Royer sought in vain to get a four-year allowance from King William I in order to afford to stay in Rome and study classical sculpture. The young sculptor was more successful in 1823, in the competition for the Grand Prize for Sculpture instituted by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam: with a work depicting a young Greek shepherd fighting off a snake. Royer won this prize and so was in a position to spend four years in Rome to complete his studies.²²E. Langendijk, ‘Louis Royer en de eerste Groote Prijs voor de Beeldhouwkunst in Nederland’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 120-31; Langendijk in G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, pp. 14-23.

In Rome Royer mainly kept company with some twenty Dutch artists, including the painters Abraham Teerlink, Hendrik Voogd and the sculptors Louis Jéhotte and Matthijs Kessels. He was also in contact with the most important and most influential sculptor in Rome, the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen. Royer’s time in this lively, artistic environment was extremely productive and formed the basis for his later successes. In Rome a certain Mr Le Grelle commissioned him in 1826 to make a bust of Pope Leo XII, as is apparent from a letter Royer wrote to Roothaan on 10 March 1827.³³Nijmegen, Catholic Documentation Centre, inv. no. 5063; W. Bergé, Heimwee naar de klassieken: De beelden van Mathieu Kessels en zijn tijdgenoten, 1815-1840, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1994-95, no. 60. Before embarking on this portrait, Royer made various sketches of the Holy Father on paper one of which is dated ‘30 mars 1826’.⁴⁴Nijmegen, Catholic Documentation Centre, inv. no. 5103. When the marble portrait was already far advanced the sculptor was given the opportunity to finish his bust ‘from life’. In another letter to Roothaan Royer stressed that is was a special privilege: ‘Until today, no person has had the advantage to do this from life.’⁵⁵Nijmegen, Catholic Documentation Centre, inv. no. 5123: Geen mensch tot heden heeft kunnen voordeel bekomen hetzelve na het leven te kunnen maken. For this exclusive occasion, the young sculptor asked his Amsterdam maecenas Roothaan for an extra allowance for suitable clothing.⁶⁶Nijmegen, Catholic Documentation Centre, inv. no. 5063. These special circumstances not only contributed towards the realization of a good likeness of the bust, but also enhanced Royer’s prestige as an artist. Ultimately, the client did not accept the sculpture, so Royer took it back to the Netherlands, where it attracted considerable praise. In February 1828 the sculptor was even permitted to show it to the Queen in The Hague.⁷⁷Langendijk in G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, p. 18. Such interest from the Protestant court for the Catholic pontiff was perhaps partly due to the fact that, a year earlier, Leo XII had concluded a concordat with King William I settling the relations between the Roman Catholic church and the Dutch State. This agreement was commemorated on a silver medallion by F.J. de Hondt, portraying the two rulers in profile, facing each other (NG-VG-1-3520). It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that this composition is repeated in the small portrait made by the painter Charles van Beveren of Royer, sitting in his workshop (SK-A-1523). There, the bust of Pope Leo XII is depicted in the background between several other of the sculptor’s works, including his Ecce Homo (BK-B-44) and, in the foreground left, the then unfinished portrait of King William I.⁸⁸Langendijk in G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, fig. 18.

The portrait of Leo XII is in keeping with a succession of busts of popes and cardinals going back to the sixteenth century, with the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) forming the apogee. In view of the restrained composition, yet rich clothing details (like the stole embroidered with papal insignia and the prelate’s name), Royer was clearly inspired by the portrait of Pope Pius VII by his famous contemporary, Antonio Canova (1787-1822).⁹⁹P.K. van Daalen, Nederlandse beeldhouwers in de negentiende eeuw, The Hague 1957, p. 22; M. Praz and G. Pavanello, L’opera completa del Canova, Milan 1976, nos. 156-58. The striking likeness of Royer’s portrayal – thanks in part to the fact that it was a sculpture from life – was particularly appreciated by his contemporaries.

Frits Scholten, 2026