Bust of a Greek Philosopher (Hippocrates?)

Modelled, fired and polychromed. The bust’s underside has been hollowed out.

The nose is damaged and has possibly been replaced. The eyebrows, headband and mantle have also sustained damage in areas. The polychromy is modern.

…; from the dealer Lamp, place unknown, fl. 5, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1878; transferred to the museum, 1885

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-4297

This terracotta bust of a Greek philosopher likely originally functioned as a facade sculpture. The rather crudely modelled, surly looking face with piercing eyes and thick eyebrows is highly reminiscent of the so-called gapers (yawners) adorning the facades of apothecary and pharmacists’ shops.¹¹For gapers, see T. Schoenmakers and J. Jas, Slang, Esculaap en Gaper: Medisch-farmaceutische symbolen, Mijdrecht 1993. In most cases, these kinds of hangout signs were carved from wood, though several examples made of stone or fired clay also exist. The thickly applied, often colourful polychromy layer not only protected these objects against the elements, but also ensured they drew the attention of passers-by on the street below. The paint layer on the present bust is modern, yet its surface was probably polychromed from the start. Acknowledging the square recess on its underside, the sculpture would have been displayed on the facade by means of some kind of supporting element or in a wall niche.

The present bust bears no outer traits to determine the Greek philosopher’s specific identity. One possibility is Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine. Hangout signs and architectural elements bearing his image commonly adorned the building facades of medical institutions, medical book publishers, apothecary and pharmacists’ shops, and private physicians’ homes. In the eighteenth century, a bust of Hippocrates and an accompanying bust of the philosopher’s divine ‘forefather’ Asclepius were added to the facade of the Grote Vleeshal (also Sint-Pietershal) in Amsterdam (RP-P-1911-3151).²²See also the watercolour by Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk in the Collection Atlas Splitgerber, Amsterdam, City Archives, image no. 010001000705. These busts referred to the Collegium Medicum, located on the building’s first floor, above the meat hall.³³J. van Lennep and J. ter Gouw, De uithangteekens, in verband met geschiedenis en volksleven beschouwd, Amsterdam 1868, vol. 1, p. 200.

Leeuwenberg described the bust on stylistic grounds as a work produced in the second half of the seventeenth century in the circle of the Amsterdam city architect and sculptor Hendrick de Keyser I (1565-1621) and his successors.⁴⁴J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 186. The harsh, schematic design of the face, the tendons of the neck and the folds of the mantle nevertheless support a later dating, in the early eighteenth century. The bust is copied directly after or derived from the same prototype as an expertly modelled, 78 centimetres high terracotta tronie or character head of a philosopher that last surfaced on the art market in 2022 (fig. a).⁵⁵Milan, Cesati Works of Art. Formerly in the collection of Michael Hall. The recent attribution to Giusto Le Court by Andrea Bacchi is rejected by Maichol Clemente (written communication, 8 September 2023). Both heads possess the same brutish facial expression with raised eyebrows and the downturned corners of the mouth, and wear a comparable hairband with one end hanging down the side. Another shared detail is the almost identical manner in which the mantle drapes over the front, with the upper torso gradually transitioning into a square pedestal. The seventeenth century terracotta head recalls the works of the Mechelen sculptor Lucas Faydherbe (1617-1697), who made several similarly large and lively terracotta busts of mythological figures and Pieter Xaveri (c. 1647-1673/4), an Antwerp sculptor active in Leiden who specialized in grotesque figures modelled with unusual facial expressions. Like its baroque precursor, the present, far more stiffly executed facade bust would also have originated from the Netherlands, albeit somewhat later.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 235

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Bust of a Greek Philosopher (Hippocrates?), Netherlands, c. 1700 - c. 1730', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24525