anonymous

Allegory of the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands

c. 1622 - c. 1630

Inscriptions

  • inscription, bottom:[..]er. siet. ghij. lustich wt gestreke[.] ducdalba in sijnen tijrannigen troon met sweerden boijen stroppen. bes[..]eren. scheurende met der hant slants prevelegen / [...]elle die vlijtich arbeijt om duvelsloon blaest hem d' ooren vol deur wr[?]ekende haet die haer den duvel elck laet sien een croon te verdienen deur 't v[..]staen / [..]sta[.]t bij hem staen scherprechter en sijn bloetraet voor hem knielen als slaeven in banden 17 Joncvrouwe. seer desolaet die werpen godts woort wt / [...] allen deur vreese hem te voe[.] haer vrome [......] dere sietmen [......] en die vant verbont die waeren onthalst / [......]([He]re you behold, beautifully portraye[d], the Duke of Alva on his tyrannical throne, with swords, chains, ropes. [...] Ripping apart the country’s privileges with his hands / [Granv?]elle, who works diligently for the devil’s pay, fills his ears out of vengeful [?] hatred, the devil promising each a crown through [........] [......]. beside him stand the executioner and his Council of Blood, 17 maidens kneeling before him like shackled slaves, very wretched, who pour God’s word forth [...] all through fear [......]. There one sees [......], and those of the pact who were beheaded. [......])
  • coat of arms, left: a gold lion rampant on a black field (province of North Brabant)
  • coat of arms, second from left: a black lion rampant on a silver field (unidentified province)
  • coat of arms, centre: divided horizontally, A, a red demi-lion rising up on a gold field; B, two silver bars on a blue field (province of Zeeland)
  • coat of arms, second from right: divided vertically, 1, a gold lion rampant reversed on a blue field; 2, a black lion rampant on a gold field (province of Gelderland)
  • coat of arms, right: a red lion rampant on a gold field (province of South Holland)

Technical notes

The support consists of three planks with a horizontal grain. The top is bevelled. The painting has been cut down on the left. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1598. The panel could have been ready for use by 1607, but a date in or after 1617 is more likely. The ground layer is whitish and thin. The paint layers were smoothly applied, with impasto for the highlights.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 18 februari 2004
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 18 oktober 2005

Condition

Poor. The painting is severely abraded and has numerous small areas of paint loss, due to the working of the wood support. A new piece of wood was inserted at top left, from which a large horizontal crack runs to the right side. The varnish has discoloured considerably.

Provenance

...; presented by the dealer J.J. Boas Berg, Amsterdam, to the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, 1890; on loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap to the museum since 1973

ObjectNumber: SK-C-1551

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

Entry

This fragmentary allegory of the suppression of religious freedom in the Netherlands under the Spanish Duke of Alva shows the Dutch provinces as chained women, with behind them the States-General silenced by Alva. The missing section on the left showed Alva on his throne, and must have been as wide as the one extending beyond the text on the right.

The scene is based on a print attributed to Willem Jacobsz Delff (1580-1638) that was published in 1622 in Middelburg by Jan van de Venne (fig. a).1The inscription reads: ‘I.P. Vennius exc. Middelburgi 1622’; Tanis/Horst 1993, p. 62. In 1622, Jan van de Venne was paid 131 pounds by the States-General for ‘the delivery of 21 prints entitled (...) Display of the wretched state of these lands under the tyranny of the Duke of Alva’.2Van Vaeck 1992, p. 88: ‘(...) de leveringe van eenetwintich caertgens, geintituleert (...) verthooninge van den Elendigen Staet van deze Landen onder de Tyrannie van den Hertog van Alve’. The many surviving painted versions of the scene show that it was quite popular. Among the institutions that have painted copies, many of them with the same inscription as on the print, are Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft,3Illustrated in Delft 1998, p. 9, fig. 5. and the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg.4Photo RMA. Other painted copies are: St Petersburg, Hermitage; photo RKD; Matlock, private collection, 1949; photo RKD; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 12 December 1984, no. 264; Brighton, private collection, 1970; photo RKD. The scene was hardly topical, for it refers to events that took place back in the 16th century, and the print of 1622 is based on an engraving of 1569,5Reproduced in Utrecht 1981, p. 53, no. 35; Horst 2003, p. 85, fig. 21. in which the same elements are found but in a different composition. The subject was revived as anti-Spanish propaganda after the end of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1621.6Tanis/Horst 1993, p. 63.

In contrast to the painted copies mentioned above, the Rijksmuseum picture differs somewhat from the print of 1622. A group of figures was added on the right, the format is more horizontal, cutting off the architecture at the top, and one of the chained women is pointedly looking out at the viewer. The inscription at the bottom is also different from that on the print.7Muller I, 1863, nos. 514-20, lists more engraved versions of the print, but none of them contains the changes made in this painting. The same departures from the original are found, however, in another painted version.8Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 24 October 1984, no. 87, attributed to Gerrit Pieter Sweelinck. It can be assumed that one of these paintings is the prototype of this deviant composition, or that both are based on another, unknown painting.

In 1631, Dirck van Delen incorporated the motif of Alva with the 17 chained provinces in an architecture piece, of which there are two known versions.9Dealer Bob P. Haboldt & Co., Paris, 1995; illustrated in dealer cat. Haboldt 1995, p. 47, no. 19; an unsigned and undated version in Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht; see coll. cat. Utrecht 2002, p. 190. This shows that the scene was still popular even in 1631. This makes it difficult to date the Rijksmuseum painting, but it was probably made between 1622 and 1630.10Van Thiel (1995, p. 60) dates it c. 1625.

Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 423.

Literature

Van Thiel 1995, pp. 38, 60

Collection catalogues

1976, p. 658, no. C 1551; 2007, no. 423

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'anonymous, Allegory of the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, c. 1622 - c. 1630', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.11950

(accessed 1 May 2025 05:11:12).

Figures

  • fig. a Willem Jacobsz Delff, Allegory of the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, 1622. Engraving, 417 x 573 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-OB-79.001.

Footnotes

  • 1The inscription reads: ‘I.P. Vennius exc. Middelburgi 1622’; Tanis/Horst 1993, p. 62.
  • 2Van Vaeck 1992, p. 88: ‘(...) de leveringe van eenetwintich caertgens, geintituleert (...) verthooninge van den Elendigen Staet van deze Landen onder de Tyrannie van den Hertog van Alve’.
  • 3Illustrated in Delft 1998, p. 9, fig. 5.
  • 4Photo RMA. Other painted copies are: St Petersburg, Hermitage; photo RKD; Matlock, private collection, 1949; photo RKD; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 12 December 1984, no. 264; Brighton, private collection, 1970; photo RKD.
  • 5Reproduced in Utrecht 1981, p. 53, no. 35; Horst 2003, p. 85, fig. 21.
  • 6Tanis/Horst 1993, p. 63.
  • 7Muller I, 1863, nos. 514-20, lists more engraved versions of the print, but none of them contains the changes made in this painting.
  • 8Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 24 October 1984, no. 87, attributed to Gerrit Pieter Sweelinck.
  • 9Dealer Bob P. Haboldt & Co., Paris, 1995; illustrated in dealer cat. Haboldt 1995, p. 47, no. 19; an unsigned and undated version in Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht; see coll. cat. Utrecht 2002, p. 190.
  • 10Van Thiel (1995, p. 60) dates it c. 1625.