Sculpted in relief.

Commissioned by Stadholder Willem IV (1711-1751) for the chambre de presence of his spouse Anne of Hannover (1709-1759) at Huis ten Bosch Palace, The Hague (1736-1751), 1735;¹¹L.J. van der Klooster, ‘Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Documentatie over enkele van zijn werken’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 21 (1970), pp. 99-138, esp. p. 110; D.F. Slothouwer, De paleizen van Frederik Hendrik, Leiden 1945, p. 322, no. 811. with the palace, to their son Stadholder Willem V (1748-1806), 1751; with the palace, confiscated during the Batavian Republic (the Dutch State under French- inspired rule), 1795; dismantled and transferred to the Nationale Kunstgallerij in the same palace, 1800;²²E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum: Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1909, p. 126. In 1808, the relief was stored in het lattehok op de Zolder (‘the batten room in the Attic’). transferred to the Trippenhuis, Amsterdam, 1817;³³The relief appears in a watercolour by Gerrit Lamberts from June 1838, showing the Print Room of the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam, Amsterdam City Archives, see <a href="http://archief.amsterdam/archief/10097/010097000024">inv. no. 010097000024</a>. It was later set in a 17th-century chimney piece of a cloakroom; see L.J. van der Klooster, ‘Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Documentatie over enkele van zijn werken’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 21 (1970), pp. 99-138, esp. pp. 111-12. from which, as a long-term loan from the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (residing at the Trippenhuis since 1812) to the museum, since 1990

Object number: BK-1997-12

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen

As court sculptor, Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742) was highly involved in the rebuilding and modernization of Huis ten Bosch, the stadholder’s palace in The Hague, under Prince Willem IV (1711-1751). The renovation began in the fall of 1733, overseen by the architect Daniel Marot. In 1734, Xavery produced three marble mantelpieces for the corps de logis, which subsequently led to a commission in 1735 for a marble overmantel relief in the chambre de presence of Anna of Hanover (1709-1759), daughter of the English king whom the stadholder had married the year before. The iconography of this work was chosen in close consultation with the stadholder himself, as confirmed by treasurer-general Radermacher’s written correspondence to the prince in November 1735: ‘The sculptor Xavery must know which Design Your Majesty would like to commission for the Bas-relief of the Chimney Piece in the presentation chamber of Her Royal Highness. If Your Majesty would be so kind to give his most gracious Commands for this, then that work could also be completed, during the Winter season, and the apartment could be furnished in the necessary order.’⁴⁴De beeldhouwer Xaverij diend te weten het Desseijn ’t welk Uwe Hoogheijt zal gelieven te ordonneren voor het Bas-relief van de Schoorsteen in de presentiekamer van Hare Koninglijke Hoogheijt. Indien Uwe Hoogheijt daarop deszelfs genadigste Bevelen geliefde te geeven, zou dat Werk, gedurende het Winter-saisoen, mede voltooijd, en het appartement in de vereijschte order gemeubeleerd kunnen worden. Quote taken from L.J. van der Klooster, ‘Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Documentatie over enkele van zijn werken’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 21 (1970), pp. 99-138, esp. p. 110. In 1970, Van der Klooster identified this work as the present marble relief in the Rijksmuseum, held on long-term loan from the Trippenhuis since 1990. The piece was removed from Huis ten Bosch Palace during the Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and later moved with the collection of the Nationale Kunstgalerij (National Art Gallery) to the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam in 1817.

Only after the sculptor’s death in 1742 was his widow paid the outstanding sum for this relief and for other work executed for the stadholder in 1735.⁵⁵D.F. Slothouwer, De paleizen van Frederik Hendrik, Leiden 1945, p. 322; L.J. van der Klooster, ‘Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Documentatie over enkele van zijn werken’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 21 (1970), pp. 99-138, esp. p. 110, no. 811. Whether this payment was unusually delayed, or whether the relief itself was completed only shortly before the artist’s death – thus long after the commission had been granted – remains uncertain. If the latter scenario is correct, the delay may have resulted from the late receipt of instructions concerning the stadholder’s preferred iconographic representation.

Indeed, the chosen theme was anything but standard. The relief shows Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl, a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (XIV:116-157) seldom depicted. At first, Xavery’s amorous portrayal of the Greek god and the desirable sibyl appears highly befitting for a princess’s chamber. When interpreted as an allegory of human vanity, however, the subject might be considered conspicuously odd. Apollo desired the beautiful sibyl, who rejected the god’s advances. He then granted her wish to live a life lasting as many years as the grains in a pile of sand. Yet the sibyl still refused to sacrifice her virginity, even when the god finally offered her eternal youth. The Cumaean Sibyl lived for a thousand years – year after year refusing Apollo’ pleas – but eventually her youthful beauty entirely faded, leaving her old and embittered.

Xavery probably designed the composition for this uncommon scene himself, even if possibly inspired by a contemporary illustration of Ovid. A degree of similarity can be discerned in an engraving by Martin Bouche in the Dutch edition of the Metamorphoses from 1732, particularly in the figure of the standing Apollo (fig. a).⁶⁶De gedaant-wisselingen van P. Ovidius Naso, in het Latyn en Nederduitsch, nieulyx vertaald, en te zamen in het Licht gegeven door Isaak Verburg, vol. 2, Amsterdam 1732, p. 459. The print shows the two figures in a dynamic pose. By contrast, Xavery’s depiction is more static, and as such more suitable for a chimney piece: Apollo lures the sibyl towards him; her free arm is outstretched, holding a pile of sand in her cupped left hand. The inclusion of the mischievous Amor, who spies from behind Apollo’s drapery, bestows a lightly erotic tint on the otherwise courtly and elegant representation. The scene is above all of an elegant couple – with the exception of the pile of sand in the sybil’s hand, there is no other trace of the ominous conclusion to Ovid’s tale. For this reason, it was unlikely judged as inappropriate, with the association between the stadholder and his English princess and the elegant corporeal forms of Apollo and the sibyl readily apparent. The compositional void upper right, daring for its day, is also encountered on other reliefs by Xavery’s hand.⁷⁷For example, the Overdoor Piece with Two Putti and a Lamb (1740) from Rapenburg 48 in Leiden, now in the Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden, inv. no. 9370, see Ch. Vogelaar, ‘Reliëf met twee amoretten’, Bulletin van de Vereniging Rembrandt 10 (2000), no. 2, pp. 16-18, fig. on p. 16.

Frits Scholten, 2026

H.A. van Goch, ‘Het Trippenhuis’, Het Huis Oud en Nieuw 7 (1909), p. 65 (with ill.); E.W. Moes and E. van Biema, De nationale Konst-Gallery en het Koninklijk Museum: Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1909, p. 126; H.A. van Goch, Het Trippenhuis, Amsterdam 1922, p. 46; H. Brugmans and A. Loosjes, Amsterdam in beeld, Amsterdam 1925, p. 274; D.F. Slothouwer, De paleizen van Frederik Hendrik, Leiden 1945, p. 322; L.J. van der Klooster, ‘Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Documentatie over enkele van zijn werken’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 21 (1970), pp. 99-138, esp. pp. 109-10, fig. 4; M. Loonstra, Het huijs int Bosch, Het Koninklijk Paleis Huis ten Bosch historisch gezien, Zutphen 1985, pp. 78, 79 and fig. on p. 79; R. Baarsen, ‘Sculptor and Chairmaker? Throne Chairs from the Workshop of Jan Baptist Xavery’, Furniture History 42 (2006), pp. 101-13, esp. p. 102

F. Scholten, 2026, 'Jan Baptist Xavery, Overmantel Relief with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl, in or after 1735 - in or before 1742', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20062510