Modelled and fired.

The head is missing. The left hand a piece of drapery have been replaced.

…; ? donated by Jan van Logteren to the Stadstekenacademie in the Town Hall (nowadays Royal Palace) at Dam Square, Amsterdam;¹¹Suggestion made by Angela Jager (written communication to Frits Scholten, 2010). ? transferred to the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (old Exchange of Hendrick de Keyser), Amsterdam, 1821;²²See H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. p. 70. ? transferred to the Oude Mannenhuis, Amsterdam, 1837;³³See H.J. Wiggers, ‘De stad Amsterdam en haar vroegste beeldencollectie’, in M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, pp. 60-75, esp. pp. 70-71. ? transferred to the Rijksacademie, Stadhouderskade, Amsterdam, 1870; first recorded there in 1980;⁴⁴Cf. written correspondence with the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst and the Ministerie van Cultuur, Recreatie en Maatschappelijk Werk, 29 October and 19 November 1980, in the Object File, RMA. transferred to the Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, 1981;⁵⁵Cf. several handwritten notes by Willy Halsema-Kubes and Simon Levie, 1981, in the Object File, RA. with BK-1996-20, transferred to the museum, before 1994

Object number: BK-1996-21

This pair of damaged terracottas, though previously attributed to Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698), convey nothing of the full corporeal style of this seventeenth-century sculptor, whose work was firmly rooted in the Flemish Baroque of his teacher, Artus Quellinus (1609-1668). The two figures can be identified by their attributes: Apollo (BK-1996-20), a lyre and python; Diana (shown here), a greyhound. In a photo from circa 1950 (fig. a), the Apollo and Diana from the Rijksacademie Amsterdam are accompanied by a third terracotta, representing Atalanta, now unfortunately lost. There is no doubt that this third figure was modelled by the same hand as the others, together possibly even forming an ensemble. The photo also reveals that the Apollo’s head was still intact at this time.⁶⁶In three photos, all originating from the Amsterdam Lichtbeeldeninstituut (an institute of glass slide plates), the young god’s head is already missing; the Diana is unchanged. Photo’s in Object File, RMA. Especially the facial type of the now lost Atalanta – evident from the photo – undermines any possibility of a Verhulst attribution. On the contrary, all three elegantly formed statuettes are far more typical of the style prevalent in the Netherlands in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Evidence to confirm this assertion is provided by a series of design drawings made of or after garden statues once held in a private Amsterdam collection.⁷⁷Collection P.D. Rezelman, Amsterdam. P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 155-58 and fig. 147. The series comprises a total of thirteen drawings of individual statues made in pencil and pen, with some statues rendered more than once. Eight statues on pedestals are accompanied by the inscription B:d:Wilde. Four other statues drawn in pencil (and partly highlighted in pen) bear the name J.V.Logteren accompanied by the stipulated height measurement – 6 voet hoog (6 feet high = c. 1.70 m) – inscribed in ink on the plinth. Given that all share the same signature drawing style, the exact status of the inscribed names remains unclear: are they the signatures of the artists who made the drawings, or are they the names of the garden statues’ designers? The Apollo and Diana compositions are readily identifiable in the four pencil drawings inscribed with the name J. Van Logteren. The non-extant terracotta Atalanta corresponds to one of the drawings from the series with the inscription B:d:Wilde, in which she is paired with a figure of Meleager. From the drawings, one can also determine what attributes are missing on the terracottas: Diana’s flaming torch and Apollo the dragon-killer’s archer’s bow. This identification confirms that the terracotta figures of Apollo, Diana and Atalanta can be attributed to the sculptors Ignatius (1685-1732) and Jan (1709-1745) van Logteren – father and son – and Bartholomeus de Wilde, a less-renowned sculptor who worked as an assistant in the Van Logterens’s Amsterdam workshop in the first half of the eighteenth century.⁸⁸P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 12, 156. Bartholomeus (Bernard) de Wilde and his brother, Thijs, were assistants of Jan van Logteren and continued operating his workshop for some time after 1745. Accordingly, it appears that all drawings – and likewise the terracotta designs, given the unquestionable stylistic agreement – came from the Van Logteren workshop. As yet unresolved, however, is their precise authorship, as the names on the drawings fail to differentiate between Ignatius and his son, Jan, as no distinction exists between the capital letters I and J in eighteenth-century handwritten letter types. Moreover, Jan van Logteren continued working in his father’s style even after Ignatius’s death in 1732, thereby profiting from his artistic inheritance. Models for statues that had remained in Ignatius’s workshop after his death could be readily (re-)used by the son. An advertisement placed by Jan van Logteren in the Amsterdamsche Courant in 1742, announcing a sale of statues in his possession, confirms that this was indeed the case: ‘Jan van der Streng Broker, on Tuesday 10 April, at 9 o’clock in the morning at the home of Jan van Logteren, Sculptor on the Princegragt [sic] across from the Amstelkerk, shall sell a group of Hardstone Statues and Vases, Marble Busts, Bas-Reliefs and Vases, to various ornaments of Wood, plus Chimneys, Mirror Frames, Buffets, Cardoesen [= columns] and Vases &c; left behind and in part made by Ignatius van Logteren; and to be viewed with Annotations.’⁹⁹Jan van der Streng Makelaar, zal op Dingsdag 10 April, ’s morgens ten 9 uuren ten huyze van Jan van Logteren, Beeldhouwer op de Princegragt over de Amstelkerk, verkopen een partij Hardsteene Beelden en Vasen, Marmore Borstbeelden, Basreliven en Vasen, diverse ornamenten van Hout, tot Schoorsteenen, Spiegellijsten, Boufets, Cardoesen en Vasen &c; nagelaten en ten deele gemaekt door Ignatius van Logteren; en volgens Notities te zien.. _ Amsterdamsche Courant_, 22 March 1742. Jan therefore sold (ten years after his Ignatius’s death) not only his own sculptures, but also works left behind by his father, on whose fame he perhaps still financially relied.

Two surviving garden statues by the Van Logterens can shed light on this matter, as both display a marked agreement with the above-cited drawings and the three terracottas. Adorning the façade of the country estate Vechtvliet near Breukelen are two large sandstone statues positioned at either corner of the building: pendant statues of Atalanta and Meleager precisely corresponding to the drawings with the De Wilde inscription.¹⁰¹⁰F. Scholten, ‘Twee teruggevonden “bozzetti” van Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732)’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53 (2005), pp. 126-39, esp. figs. 11-13. P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 159-62. One statue bears Ignatius van Logteren’s monogram I.V.L., the other the sculptor’s name written in full. The match verifiably links the now lost terracotta Atalanta to the father. In turn, the evident stylistic similarity of this work to the Apollo and Diana also identifies Ignatius van Logteren as the maker of these statuettes. Further confirmation of this attribution comes from a large sandstone Diana, signed with the same I.V.L. monogram and preserved at Woburn Abbey, the country estate of the dukes of Bedford.¹¹¹¹F. Scholten, ‘Twee teruggevonden “bozzetti” van Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732)’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53 (2005), pp. 126-39, esp. p. 135 and fig. 14; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 291. This statue shows clear parallels to the small terracotta Diana, specifically in the pose and the placement of the greyhound at the goddess’s feet, as well as her drapery. Even if not from the same model, the similarities between these two works are sufficient enough to reaffirm the terracotta’s attribution to Ignatius.

In what year the garden statues of Atalanta and Meleager were placed at Vechtvliet is not known. Built for the Amsterdam merchant Willem van den Broeck circa 1670 and designed by the architect Philips Vingboons, the house underwent a major exterior modernization shortly before 1750. The owner at the time, Jean Clicquet, had the classicist facade replaced with fashionable rococo ornamentation.¹²¹²E. Munnig Schmidt and A.J.A.M. Lisman, Plaatsen aan de Vecht en de Angstel: Historische beschrijvingen en afbeeldingen van kastelen, buitenplaatsen, stads- en dorpsgezichten aan de Vecht en de Angstel – van Zuilen tot Muiden, Alphen aan de Rijn 1997, pp. 114-15. At this time, the statues of Atalanta and Meleager may also have been acquired: an 1836 lithography of the house shows the statues forming an integral part of the new façade, displayed in two (non-extant) niches flanking the entrance.¹³¹³Gezigten aan de rivier de Vecht naar de Natuur geteekend en op steen overgebrag door P.J. Lutgers, Utrecht 1836 (facsimile: Alphen aan den Rijn 1970). Assuming Cliquet had not acquired them prior to the estate’s renovation – given that his name appears in the cash ledger of the Amsterdam sculptor Michiel Schee as early as 1735, in connection with four Bentheimer sandstone busts¹⁴¹⁴SAA 2536, no. 1, Archive Burgerweeshuis, cash ledger M. Shee. On 8 June, Schee received van de heer ian Cliquet d somme van vierhondert driendartigh guldens voor vier bemtemer steene borstbeelden en vier blauwe steen termen en een blauw steen pedistaal. (‘from de heer ian Cliquet the sum of four hundred and thirty-three guilders for four bemtemer steene (sic, Bentheim stone) busts and four blue stone (i.e. Belgian hardstone) herms and a blue stone pedestal.’) Cliquet’s son, Pieter, purchased an oak chimney piece from the same sculptor in July 1737. – he could very well have purchased them at the sale of Jan van Logteren’s estate. One year after Jan’s death in 1745, all his workshop inventory was placed on public sale: ‘Jan van der Streng and Theodorus Sluyter, brokers, Wednesday 16 March, in Amsterdam at the house of the Widow Jan van Logteren on the Prince-gragt [sic] across from the Amstelkerk, shall sell highly artful and unrivalled Marble and other Vases, extraordinarily beautiful Statues, Groups, Busts, various carved ornaments, as well as a group of Modelled Works, by Quinoy [= Du Quesnoy], Ebbelaer, Quilin [= Quellinus], Ignatius and Jan van Logteren, and other leading masters; for the rest various beautiful Casts of Plaster, various drawings and Prints: All left behind by the famous Artist and Sculptor Jan van Logteren [...]’.¹⁵¹⁵Jan van der Streng en Theodorus Sluyter, makelaars, zullen op woensdag 16 maert, t’Amst. ten huyze van de Wed. Jan van Logteren op de Prince-gragt over de Amstel-Kerk verkopen, zeer konstige en weergalooze Marmore en andere Vaezen, extra fraeye Beelden, Groepen, Borstbeelden, diverse gesnede ornamenten, als meede een partij Boetzeersels, van Quinoy, Ebbelaer, Quilin, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren, en andere voorname meesters; verder verscheyde fraeye Gietzels van Playster, diverse teekeningen en Printen: Alles nagelaten door den beroemde Konstenaer en Beeldhouwer Jan van Logteren_ (…); Amsterdamsche Courant, 19 February 1746. One must not overlook the possibility that the Atalanta and Meleager were also among those objects described as extra fraeye Beelden (extraordinarily beautiful Statues’), kept as part of the old inventory from Ignatius’s atelier and appropriated by the son. As Jan van Logteren’s personal assistant, it was perhaps Bartholomeus de Wilde who had made the drawings and/or annotations to accompany the statues for this occasion.

The modelling of the two terracottas conveys only the most essential aspects: the positioning of the body, the drapery scheme of the clothing and the primary attributes. Details have been incised with a modelling stylus – a so-called stecca – while parallel lines have been made with a toothed tool, as on Apollo’s lyre. A large lump of clay can be observed on the reverse of both statuettes: a piece of the raw clay from which the statuettes were sculpted, apparently left for extra support. The looseness of the modelling characterises these figures as working studies, i.e. bozzetti, for large garden statues. This is in contrast to a carefully finished terracotta such as Ignatius van Logteren’s statuette of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, clearly made as a completed cabinet piece.¹⁶¹⁶F. Scholten, ‘Een terracotta portret van graaf Johan Maurits’, Mauritshuis in Focus 13 (2000), no. 1, pp. 22-34.

A side view of Diana shows that a vertical line has been made in the wet clay to indicate just how deep the final statue would be. Similarly, the vertical incision on the top of this clay hump serves the same purpose. Such constructions are by no means uncommon, occurring in Italy as early as the seventeenth century, for example, with Bernini.¹⁷¹⁷See I. Wardropper, ‘The Role of Terracotta Models in Italian Baroque Sculptural Practice’, in I. Wardropper et al., From the Sculptor’s Hand: Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum, exh. cat. Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago)/Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 1998, pp. 30-42, esp. p. 41, fig. 14; B. Boucher (ed.), Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, exh. cat. Houston (Museum of Fine Arts Houston)/London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2001-02, no. 44. A thin, vertical ligne de rapport has been incised on the bodies of Diana and Apollo, frontally and on the sides from head to toe. Such coordinates were used to spatially anchor the composition. They also gave the sculptor a fixed basis from which to transfer the small-scale design to the desired monumental statue. The minuscule incisions on the front and sides of Diana’s plinth also facilitated the sculptor in his work. They provided a certain indication of the scale, which also assisted him in the transformation from small to large.¹⁸¹⁸I. Wardropper, ‘The Role of Terracotta Models in Italian Baroque Sculptural Practice’, in I. Wardropper et al., From the Sculptor’s Hand: Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum, exh. cat. Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago)/Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 1998, pp. 30-42, esp. fig. 14; A.B. Sigel, ‘The Clay Modelling Techniques of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’, in I. Gaskell and Henry Lie (eds.), Sketches in Clay for Projects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Theoretical, Technical, and Case Studies (Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin 6, no. 3), Cambridge (Mass.) 1999, pp. 48-72, esp. pp. 67-68. The measuring points on the Diana appear to indicate the feet and thumb measurements. The width of her plinth is indicated by two small vertical lines incised at the corners, with a measuring distance of 9 cm. In the middle of the plinth, a length of 0.8 is indicated by two incisions, corresponding to approximately 1/11th of the total.¹⁹¹⁹By comparison: a sandstone Apollo statue in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (< a href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-1961-50/catalogue-entry">BK-1961-50) attributed to Jan van Logteren measures 170 cm (= 6 Amsterdam feet), whereas the head and neck together measure approximately 28 cm (= 1 Amsterdam foot), i.e. 1/6 of the total height. Presuming that the monumental garden statue was indeed meant to stand 6 feet high, as conveyed by the inscription in the drawing, and additionally, that the entire bozzetto of Diana (including the head) was originally circa 36 cm high, this would indicate that the width of the actual plinth would have to be 1.5 feet (= 42.5 cm). The length of 0.8 cm separating the two small incisions on the bozzetto is then equivalent to 1.5 thumbs.²⁰²⁰An Amsterdam foot (28.3 cm) is equivalent to 11 thumbs (2.57 cm).

Unless Jan van Logteren presented the terracottas from his father’s estate as a gift to the Amsterdam Stadstekenacademie (City’s Drawing Academy), as has been suggested,²¹²¹By Angela Jager, written communication to Frits Scholten, 2010. it is quite conceivable that the terracotta Diana, Apollo and Atalanta – and possibly others – may have entered a collector’s art cabinet following Jan van Logteren’s death. That works by father and son Van Logteren appeared in more than ten sales of private collections during the second half of the eighteenth century indicates the great admiration for their work among art collectors.²²²²Cf. sale Amsterdam (Philippus van der Schley), 17 July 1775, nos. 9 and 10 on p. 89 (No. 9 Een staande Apollo, rustende met een Hand op de Lier (‘A standing Apollo, resting with a Hand on the Lyre’), and no. 10 Een dito Diana, zynde een weerga (‘A ditto Diana, being a pendant’). This is also suggested by the formulated wording when announcing the sale of the Jan van Logteren estate, which, as noted above, included ‘a quantity of Bozzetti, by Quinoy, Ebbelaer, Quilin, Ignatius and Jan van Logteren, and other leading masters’ – clearly aimed at targeting collectors.

Frits Scholten, 2026

Bestandscatalogus Oude beeldhouwkunst 1300-1900, coll. cat. The Hague (Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst) 1995, nos. 79 and 80; F. Scholten, ‘Twee teruggevonden “bozzetti” van Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732)’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53 (2005), pp. 126-39; F. Scholten, ‘Dutch Sculpture in the 18th Century’, in R. Baarsen et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1700-1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2006, pp. 220-31, esp. pp. 223-24 and fig. 29; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 158-63

F. Scholten, 2026, 'Ignatius van Logteren, Diana, Bozzetto for a Garden Statue, Amsterdam, c. 1725', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20062172