Carved in high relief.

Four fingers are missing on Venus’s left hand.

…; sale collection Petronella Oortmans-De la Court (1624-1707), Amsterdam, 20-21 October 1707, p. 20, without no;¹¹Venus en Adonis … door den vermaarden Françis van Bossu. …; collection Anthony Grill, Amsterdam, in or before 1728;²²SAA, archive 5075 (Notarieel Archief), inv. no. 237.2.3, estate inventory Anthony Grill, 22 October 1728, p. 18, without no: Basreljeffe van Francis […] Een Venus en Adoon. …; sale collection Gerrit Braamcamp (1699-1671), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley), 31 July 1771, no. 32, fl. 71, to Wijnand Coole, Rotterdam;³³Copy RKD. The object could not be identified among any of the lots in the sale catalogue of Wijnand Coole’s estate, see his sale Rotterdam (Laurens Constant & Zn), 6 August 1782. …; collection Jan Snellen (1711-1787), Rotterdam, date unknown; by descent to Samuel Constant Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880), The Hague; from whom acquired by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-2931

This small, but highly detailed and dynamic ivory relief shows Venus who rushes to the aid of her mortal lover Adonis (Ovid, Met. 10:708-739). Just visible behind the goddess of love is the head of the wild boar that had inflicted Adonis’s fatal wound. The narrative ends tragically, as represented by the weeping figure of Cupid, who descends from the sky above.

Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692) is seen as one of the most important Netherlandish ivory carvers of the seventeenth century.⁴⁴For Van Bossuit, see for example C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82 and F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43. Born in Brussels and trained in Antwerp, around 1680 he established himself as a sculptor in Amsterdam, where he remained active until his death in 1691. Van Bossuit’s move to the north was preceded by a lengthy stay in Rome from 1655 on, a period decisive for his stylistic evolution. Under the influence of Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) and Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) in Amsterdam, this resulted in an italianized Northern Baroque style.⁵⁵Cf. C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. pp. 127ff. Characteristic of Van Bossuit’s masterfully carved reliefs are the stippled background and a format liken to a recessed, framed panel.

The present relief is among Van Bossuit’s finest works, as confirmed by its inclusion in Mattys Pool’s publication entitled Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnijder Francis van Bossuit, in ivoor gesneden en geboetseerd (Sculptor’s Art Cabinet by the Esteemed Sculptor Francis van Bossuit, Carved and Modelled in Ivory) (fig. a). Posthumously published with ninety-five etchings and an accompanying text in three different languages, Pool’s comprehensive overview presented a significant portion of Van Bossuit’s oeuvre, thereby confirming the substantial renown his work had already garnered by this time. The print preceding the etching with the dying Adonis shows another relief by Van Bossuit, which depicts the mythological young man before the fatal attack, engaged in an intimate embrace with his beloved Venus (present whereabouts unknown).

One of the two reliefs with Venus and Adonis – as will become apparent below, most likely the present piece – formerly belonged to the famous art cabinet of Petronella Oortmans-De la Court (1624-1707), the wife of an Amsterdam merchant. She possessed no less than ten works by the sculptor, including his Mars (BK-1998-74), the only known surviving freestanding sculpture by Van Bossuit, today preserved in the Rijksmuseum. Petronella’s husband, Adam Oortmans (1622-1684), even spent some time studying under the sculptor on an amateur basis, leaving no doubt the Amsterdam couple shared an exceptional bond with the Flemish artist.⁶⁶F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 33.

Another great admirer of Van Bossuit’s work was Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664-1739) of Leiden, Petronella’s grand-nephew. This highly affluent textile merchant owned not only an original ivory by the sculptor, he also commissioned an additional twelve casts of other works (present whereabouts unknown),⁷⁷These casts were probably made by Philip van der Mij, a statuary founder; see F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 37 and note 45. five of which were made from the ivories in the collection of his Amsterdam ‘aunt’. Among these reproductions of Van Bossuit’s work is a cast listed as ‘1 Venus and Adonis cast of metal over the original in ivory made by Francis, there being only 3 casts in the world and this the only of metal in 1 black ebony frame being 1 round but 1 square frame’.⁸⁸1 Venus en Adonis van metaal gegooten over ‘t origneele van yvoor door Francies gemaakt, sijnde maar 3 gietsels in de weereld en dit eenigste van metaal in 1 swart ebbenhout lijsje sijnde 1 rondje dog 1 vierkant lijsje; cited in the estate inventory of Pieter’s son and heir, Allard de la Court van der Voort (1688-1755). T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, Leiden 1987, vol. 2, p. 463, no. 54. For the other casts of works by Van Bossuit, see nos. 46-47 and 50-59. One indication that this description likely pertains to the present relief with the dying Adonis – as opposed to the version with the young man (as yet) unharmed – is the adoption of the same composition by the Leiden painter Willem van Mieris for his rendering of Rinaldo and Armida (fig. b) from 1709.⁹⁹F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. pp. 38-39. In 1703, Van Mieris also made a drawn variant of this composition, today preserved at the Leiden University Library, Special Collections, inv. no. AW 212, see RKD images no. 234772. This work was in fact commissioned by Pieter de la Court van der Voort, Van Mieris’s close friend and most important patron. It would appear the composition appealed so greatly to the collector that, in addition to the cast, he ordered a painted variant to be made.¹⁰¹⁰For more examples of works with which Willem van Mieris based his compositions on those of Francis van Bossuit, see F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 38.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, vol. 1, Paris 1872, p. 140; G. van Bever, Les tailleurs d’yvoires de la Renaissance au XIXe siècle, Brussels 1946, p. 34; E. Neurdenburg, De zeventiende eeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden: Hendrick de Keyser, Artus Quellinus, Rombout Verhulst en tijdgenooten, Amsterdam 1948, p. 264, note 709; G. Wills, Ivory, London 1968, p. 49; C. Bille, De tempel der kunst of het kabinet van den heer Braamcamp, Amsterdam 1961, p. 96 (note 19); J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 335, with earlier literature; C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”ʼ, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. pp. 127, 130, 140, 154 and no. 12; E. Dhanens (ed.), De beeldhouwkunst in de eeuw van Rubens in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het prinsbisdom Luik, exh. cat. Brussels (Museum voor Oude Kunst) 1977, no. 169; E. Bergvelt and R. Kistemaker (eds.), De wereld binnen handbereik: Nederlandse kunst- en rariteitenverzamelingen, 1585-1735, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 1992, p. 246; R.J.A. te Rijdt, ‘Een “nieuw” portret van een “nieuwe” verzamelaar van kunst en naturaliën: Jan Snellen geportretteerd door Aert Schouman in 1746’, Oud Holland 111 (1997), pp. 22-53, esp. p. 35; F. Scholten, ‘Een ivore Mars van Francis, de beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. pp. 30, 32, 38-39; Scholten in J.P. Filedt-Kok et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1600-1700, coll. cat Amsterdam 2001, p. 242; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 17; M. van der Hut, Het kunstkabinet van Petronella de la Court: De verzamelingen van een zeventiende-eeuwse mecenas, Zaandijk 2021, p. 27 and fig. I.34

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Francis van Bossuit, Venus and the Dying Adonis, Amsterdam, c. 1680 - c. 1692', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200116041