Sculpted from one piece of marble. The reverse has been partly hollowed out.

Jaarverslag Nederlandse Rijksmusea 1976, p. 17

The sculpture has sustained damage to the left ear, the lower jaw of the large lion mask, and the border of the arch. Slight moisture damage on the head and shoulders.

…; from the dealer Frankfort, Deventer, fl. 700, to the museum, with support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, 1900

Object number: BK-NM-11452

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

This sensitive marble portrait bust depicts the wine-gauger Vincent Coster (1553-1608/10), a wealthy and socially esteemed burgher of Amsterdam. Bestowed the nickname ‘Cente Peijlder’ ([Vin]cent the Gauger), Coster was also a successful businessman and the owner of a popular Amsterdam public house called Het Oude Doolhof (the old maze), complete with a pleasure garden and fountains. Two fountains can be seen in Cornelis Florissen van Berckenrode’s engraving of the tavern’s outdoor delights from 1622, which also bears an inscription (in Dutch and French) citing Coster as the (former) owner.¹¹F. Scholten, ‘A Beheaded Bust and a Fountain-Statue by Hendrick de Keyser’, The Burlington Magazine 137 (1995), pp. 838-41, esp. pp. 838-40, fig. 65. Besides owning an impressive art collection, Coster maintained regular contact with local Amsterdam artists, among them the painter Cornelis Ketel.²²N. de Roever, ‘Het nieuwe doolhof “In de Oranje pot” te Amsterdam’, Oud-Holland 6 (1888), pp. 103-12, esp. pp. 105-06. He also had ties with the city sculptor Hendrick I de Keyser (1565-1621), as affirmed by the presence of his Violin-Playing Orpheus on one of the fountains in Het Oude Doolhof.³³F. Scholten, ‘A Beheaded Bust and a Fountain-Statue by Hendrick de Keyser’, The Burlington Magazine 137 (1995), pp. 838-41, esp. pp. 840-41 and figs. 66-68.

In 1986, a beheaded fragment of a terracotta bust bearing Hendrick de Keyser’s monogram was discovered at the tavern’s former location, near the corner of Looiersgracht and the bridge over Prinsengracht. This sculpture – undoubtedly once a portrait of Coster and today preserved in the Rijksmuseum (BK-1986-39) – can be seen as a commission that preceded this marble bust from 1608.⁴⁴G. Luijten et al., Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art 1580-1620, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1993-94, no. 59. Coster’s initiative to have himself eternalized by De Keyser was highly exceptional. An art form reserved almost exclusively for the princely class, sculpted portraits were still exceedingly rare in the Netherlands at this time, most certainly when it came to members of the bourgeoisie. In this respect, the Amsterdam bust can be seen as an early example of the Dutch burghers’ budding self-awareness.

Also new to the Netherlands was a work of sculpture executed in Italian marble, at the onset of the seventeenth century a material scarcely used by Dutch sculptors. Up to this point, sculptors had worked primarily in sandstone, alabaster and terracotta. De Keyser even claimed he was the first to introduce the use of white marble in the Netherlands, as documented in a petition in the year 1612, stating in no uncertain terms: ‘[...] considering that no one here in this country has worked in marble stone up to now with any merit, [other] than he, the suppliant [= De Keyser], alone’.⁵⁵aengesien nyemant hier te lande tot noch toe in marmersteen te wercken sich geoccupeert heeft dat eenichsints meriteert, dan hij suppliant [= De Keyser alleen; E.F. Kossmann, ‘Hendrick de Keyser als uitvinder’, Oud Holland 46 (1929), pp. 284-88, esp. p. 287.] Coster’s bust is indeed the earliest known marble portrait bust made in the Dutch Republic. The white marble lends the portrait a classical character, additionally reinforced by the rendering of the figure’s clothing: the elegantly wrapped toga recalls Roman male portraits. In short, the present bust reflects both De Keyser’s classical leanings and Coster’s own personal ambition to equate himself with the elite of his day.

Frits Scholten, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 224, with earlier literature; F. Scholten, ‘De Nederlandse handel in Italiaans marmer de 17de eeuw’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 44 (1993), pp. 197-214, esp. p. 199 and fig. l; G. Luijten et al., Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art 1580-1620, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1993-94, no. 59; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 9; F. Scholten, ‘A Beheaded Bust and a Fountain-Statue by Hendrick de Keyser’, The Burlington Magazine 137 (1995), pp. 838-41, esp. fig. 62; J.P. Filedt-Kok et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1600-1700, coll. cat Amsterdam 2001, no. 4; 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. 40-51, esp. pp. 42-43 and fig. 2; 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, no. 9; G.J.M. Weber (ed.), 1600-1700: Dutch Golden Age, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018, no. 28

F. Scholten, 2024, 'Hendrick de (I) Keyser, Portrait of Vincent Coster (1553-1608/10), Amsterdam, 1608', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115891