Bust of Gerard Schaep van Cortenhoeff (1598-1666), Burgomaster of Amsterdam

Commissioned by the sitter, c. 1663-66, and placed in a side-room of his house at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, Amsterdam; by inheritance to (Johanna) Margaretha Schaep (1630-1674), Middelburg;¹¹F. Scholten, ‘Quellinus’s Burgomasters: A Portrait Gallery of Amsterdam Republicanism’, Simiolus 32 (2006), pp. 87-125, esp. notes 83 and 84. She was the daughter of a first cousin of the sitter, the Amsterdam diplomat and regent Gerard Pietersz Schaep (1599-1655), and she was married to Johan Honigh (1629-1692), councillor of Middelburg. …; donated by Vice-Admiral Gerrit Verdooren van Asperen (1757-1824) to the Zeeuws Genootschap, Middelburg, 4 February 1807; from which, on loan to the museum, since 2012

ObjectNumber: BK-C-2012-1

Credit line: On loan from the Zeeuws Museum (Middelburg), collection KZGW, inv. nr. G2222

This marble portrait bust forms part of an imposing series of Amsterdam regental portraits made by Bartholomeus Eggers (1637-1692) and his teacher, Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668). Eggers was among the talented young sculptors Quellinus recruited to assist him with the sculptural decoration of the Amsterdam former town hall (the present-day Royal Palace at Dam Square) then under construction. The sitter, Gerard Schaep van Cortenhoeff, was appointed to the function of burgomaster of Amsterdam eleven times between 1637 and 1665. In the years 1644-45 he would also serve as ‘ambassador extraordinaris’ to the courts of King Christian IV of Denmark and Queen Christina of Sweden. Together with his brother-in-law, Willem Backer, Schaep was at the core of the Calvinist faction that ceaselessly endeavoured to frustrate the Libertines – the Bickers and the brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff – in their plans to build a new town hall. As orthodox Protestants, Schaep and his cohorts instead preferred that a tower be added to the Nieuwe Kerk, which stood adjacent. Schaep’s bust demonstrates that the commissioning of a sculpted portrait was by no means necessarily obstructed by his faith. Yet it also demonstrates the great importance placed on the possession of a marble portrait, transcending values held otherwise dear: in the words of the Amsterdam chronicler Hans Bontemantel, Schaep was regarded as ‘very frugal and avaricious, both in city and [his] own affairs’.²²was seer suynich en girich, soo wel in stadts als eygen saecken; Hans Bontemantel, De regeeringe van Amsterdam soo in ’t civiel als crimineel en militaire (1653-1672) (ed. G.W. Kernkamp), vol. 2, The Hague 1897, p. 489.

While unsigned, Schaep’s bust can be securely attributed to Eggers on stylistic grounds, for instance when compared to the bust of the Amsterdam burgomaster Johannes Munter (BK-KOG-1457) which does bears his signature and is dated 1673. Eggers devised both portraits in austere fashion, void of baroque flair and pathos. Even so, he failed to match the refinement and spontaneity of Quellinus’s portraits (cf. BK-18305). He portrayed his sitters frontally, in a static pose. Typical aspects of Eggers’s style, seen in both portraits, are the undercutting of the eyelids, employed to create a small shadow falling over the eyeballs, and the way in which the hands were carved, the flat handling of the folds and the rather unsuccessful ratio of the head to the trunk. The latter could be due to the fact that Schaep’s head was carved from a separate piece of marble and then mounted on the trunk. Eggers conceived the portrait in large, rather imaginative planes. One original touch is his solution for Schaep’s right hand, which is resting on the barely visible left hand. This creates an asymmetrical contour that does give the bust some live liness. Schaep’s lips are only slightly parted and the head is turned a little to the right. The portrait must have been made in the last few years of the burgomaster’s life, given the aged face. It was probably executed between 1663, when Eggers left Quellinus’s studio, and 1666, the year of the sitter’s death. Schaep’s probate inventory of that year lists his marble portrait as well as versions in plaster and terracotta.³³Amsterdam City Archive, Notarieel Archief, inv. no. 1857, Minuutacten van inventarissen etc. van notaris N. Cruijs, fols. 517-20, is the inventory of the estate of Gerard Schaep taken on 26 and 27 July and 5 August 1666, without valuations (an inventory of Schaep’s immovables, bonds, cash etc. had been made from 10 to 14 July). It is stated on fol. 517 that in the side-room there was de staue an de overleden de heer Cortenhoeff (the statue of the deceased Mr Cortenhoeff), and on fol. 520 (in the salon) een model vande statue van de overledene van plaijster (a plaster model of the statue of the deceased). Listed on fol. 649, under the items assigned to Margareta Schaep, dated 27 October 1666, is de marmere statue vande overledene tot 135:-:- en de statue vande overledene in leem of aerde tot 10:-:- (the marble statue of the deceased, at 135 guilders, and the statue of the deceased in clay or earthenware, at 10 guilders). With thanks to Ruud Koopman, Zaandam.

Frits Scholten, 2025

F. Scholten, ‘Quellinus’s Burgomasters: A Portrait Gallery of Amsterdam Republicanism’, Simiolus 32 (2006), pp. 87-125, esp. pp. 105-06 and fig. 15; F. Scholten, 'Republican Faces: Quellinus’s Portraits of the Amsterdam Burgomasters’, in B. van der Mark (ed.), Artus Quellinus. Sculptor of Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Royal Palace/Rijksmuseum) 2025, pp. 44-55, esp. fig. 9

F. Scholten, 2025, 'attributed to Bartholomeus Eggers, Bust of Gerard Schaep van Cortenhoeff (1598-1666), Burgomaster of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, c. 1663 - c. 1666', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.507889