Allegory of the Peace under Stadholder Willem II

The plain-weave canvas support has been lined. Shallow cusping is present at the top and on the left side. An imprint from the original stretcher is visible on all four sides. The beige ground layer is visible at the reserve for the figure of Willem II. The paint layers were applied mostly wet in wet, and are quite thick. The overall treatment is quite loose, and impasto was used sparingly.

Fair. Some of the greens are discoloured. The varnish is very discoloured.

A carved limewood frame with palm branches and other figurative symbols, painted green and black, with gilding¹¹Van Thiel in Amsterdam 1984b, pp. 147-49, no. 27; Van Thiel in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, pp. 193-95, no. 27.

...; ? collection Nicolaas Cornelis Lambrechtsen van Ritthem (1752-1823), Vlissingen and Middelburg;²²According to the catalogue for the anonymous sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 9 December 1902, no. 47. ? by whom bequeathed to the Teeckenacademie, Middelburg, 1823; anonymous sale [? section Teeckenacademie, Middelburg], Amsterdam (F. Muller), 9 December 1902, no. 47, as from the collection of ‘Mr Nicolaas Corn. Lambrechtsen, 1823’, fl. 1,070, to the museum

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1995

This painting shows Prince Frederik Hendrik standing in a triumphal chariot bearing the name Concordia. Seated in front of him is the Maid of Holland accompanied by the Lion of Holland (Leo Belgicus). The personifications of Religio, Libertas and Victoria ride in the chariot with Frederik Hendrik. From left to right, the female personifications drawing the chariot are Probitas, Magnanimitas, Justitia and Prudentia, and the goddesses Minerva, Venus (shown as the Venus pudica type) and Juno await its arrival. In the left and right foreground the Rhine, Waal, Meuse and Scheldt are shown as river gods.⁶⁶The names of the rivers are inscribed on the painting. The war god Mars reclines next to the Meuse and the Scheldt rivers with his hands bound. He looks on powerlessly as, in the left background, Divine Peace extends her right hand to a personification of the free Nation holding arrows representing the seven United Provinces and presents Prince Willem II with an olive branch. This part of the depiction is referred to in the inscription on the lower rail of the accompanying contemporary frame: ‘Divine Peace, descended from above / Endows the free Nation with all manner of blessings’.⁷⁷See Inscriptions. Translated in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, p. 194. Hovering above the scene are the goddess Ceres unloading her bounty from a cornucopia, a trumpeting angel, and putti bearing the coat of arms of the House of Orange, a laurel wreath and Frederik Hendrik’s helmet.⁸⁸Van Nieulandt’s allegory was first elucidated in Vels Heijn 1969, p. 37.

As Van Thiel has argued, the painting’s traditional title, Allegory of the Peace of Münster, 1648 is not quite appropriate as neither the painting itself nor the inscription on the frame make reference to that peace settlement.⁹⁹Van Thiel in Amsterdam 1984b, p. 148; Van Thiel in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, p. 194. In publications since 1984 the traditional title has been nonetheless retained by some authors; see, for example, Hartkamp in Münster-Osnabrück 1998, p. 256, no. 739, and Savelsberg in Oranienbaum 2003, no. II 24. Frederik Hendrik died three years before the painting was executed in 1650, and Willem II was to die on 6 November of that year. As there are no allusions to his death, it can be assumed that the painting was completed while the young stadholder was still alive.¹⁰¹⁰Van Thiel in Amsterdam 1984b, p. 148; Van Thiel in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, p. 194. It seems quite likely that Van Nieulandt conceived this painting in the light of contemporary events, specifically the quarrel between the young stadholder, who advocated a large standing army and increased military expenditure, and the States of Holland, which wanted a considerably smaller force. The dispute came to a head on 30 July 1650 when Willem II staged a coup. Amsterdam, which had played a leading role in the opposition to him, was forced to accept new troop and military spending levels.¹¹¹¹See Israel 1995, pp. 602-07. The fact that Frederik Hendrik and Willem II are shown wearing armour in Van Nieulandt’s painting makes it clear that it is military might that ensures peace.¹²¹²The same idea is expressed in the decoration of the frame; see Van Thiel in Amsterdam 1984b, p. 149; Van Thiel in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, p. 195.

The present painting is not the only work by Van Nieulandt to incorporate portraits of members of the House of Orange. In 1624, he had made an allegory of Prince Maurits’s rule that was reproduced in print by Simon de Passe under the motto ‘Liberum Belgicum’.¹³¹³For this print see Geert Janssen in Amsterdam 2000a, pp. 429, 432-34, no. 250 (ill.). There is also an undated portrait by Van Nieulandt showing Maurits and Frederik Hendrik on the Beach at Scheveningen.¹⁴¹⁴The Hague, Mauritshuis; coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 299, no. 476 (ill.). Significantly, Van Nieulandt included his own portrait on the right of the present painting next to the musicians,¹⁵¹⁵As first pointed out by Van Hall 1963, p. 230. Van Nieulandt’s likeness can be compared with his portrait in Jan Tengnagel’s 1613 Officers and other Civic Guardsmen of the XIth District of Amsterdam, under the Command of Captain Geurt Dircksz van Beuningen and Lieutenant Pieter Martensz Hoeffijser (SK-C-407) and the artist’s engraved portrait in Johannes Meyssens’s Image de divers hommes desprit sublime of 1649 (unpag.). whereby his Orangist sympathies seem unmistakable

The inventory made of Van Nieulandt’s possessions after his death in 1658 includes ‘a grisaille executed by him of the Peace’ valued at 3 guilders.¹⁶¹⁶‘Een graeutje door hem gedaen van de Vrede f 3.’; for Van Nieulandt’s estate inventory see Bredius I, 1915, pp. 172-76, especially p. 174, no. 20. This grisaille was perhaps made in preparation for the Allegory of the Peace under Stadholder Willem II. Another possibility is that it was meant to serve as the model for an engraving that was never realized because of the premature death of Willem II and the great political changes that followed.

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 224.

Vels Heijn 1969; Van Thiel in Amsterdam 1984b, pp. 147-49; Van Thiel in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, pp. 193-95

1903, p. 194, no. 1748 (as Allegory of the Peace of Münster, 1648); 1934, pp. 209-10, no. 1748 (as Allegory of the Peace of Münster, 1648); 1960, p. 228, no. 1748 (as Allegory of the Treaty of Münster (Westphalia), 1648); 1976, p. 417, no. A 1995 (as Allegory of the Peace of Münster, 1648); 2007, no. 224

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Adriaen van (I) Nieulandt, Allegory of the Peace under Stadholder Willem II, 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4753