Heavy cast. A hole between the shoulders, probably used to remove the core material, has been sealed with a plug. The hat is formed from a spun and turned bronze plate and is joined to the figure’s head by means of a screw. The puffed breeches have been worked with a punch.
Alloy brass alloy with some lead; copper with some impurities (Cu 75.19%; Sn 0.89%; Zn 20.29%; Pb 2.19%; Fe 0.68%; Ni 0.17%; Ag 0.09%; Sb 0.2%; As 0.11%)

…; mounted on a heating stove, from which removed in 1871;¹¹N. de Roever, ‘De rariteiten-kamer verbonden aan ’t Amsterdamsche Gemeente-archief, II’, Oud-Holland 5 (1887), pp. 52-61, esp. p. 60. mounted on a display case, armoury hall, Prinsenhof, Amsterdam, 1879;²²Verslag van den toestand der gemeente Amsterdam gedurende het jaar 1879, p. 18. from the City of Amsterdam on loan to the museum, 1887³³GAA archive 15030, inv. no. 99851, Lijst der door de gemeente Amsterdam aan het Nederlandsch Museum in bruikleen afgestane kunstvoorwerpen, 5 July 1889, p. 13.

Object number: BK-AM-39

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

Although sometimes identified as a commander with military baton or a fencer missing his sabre,⁴⁴E. Neurdenburg, De zeventiende eeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden: Hendrick de Keyser, Artus Quellinus, Rombout Verhulst en tijdgenooten, Amsterdam 1948, p. 245 and J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 244. this bronze figure in all likelihood represents a cannoneer in the act of firing a (now missing) cannon with a fuse stick.⁵⁵N. de Roever, ‘De rariteiten-kamer verbonden aan ’t Amsterdamsche Gemeente-archief, II’, Oud-Holland 5 (1887), pp. 52-61, esp. p. 60. The man’s pose and attire (justaucorps with cravat, puffed breeches and a large hat) correspond precisely to that of a cannoneer on a late seventeenth-century Amsterdam stone facade tablet (fig. a).⁶⁶Cf. also the stone facade tablet T Düijts Cannon (The German Cannon) on the Grote Kattenburgerstraat in Amsterdam.

Nothing is known about the original provenance of the present bronze. In 1887, De Roever stated that the figure had been cleaned in the year 1871 after having been removed from a heating stove. From 1879 to 1887, it thereafter functioned as the crownpiece on a circular glass display case with military models in the armoury of the Prinsenhof (the former town hall on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam) (fig. b).⁷⁷N. de Roever, ‘De rariteiten-kamer verbonden aan ’t Amsterdamsche Gemeente-archief, II’, Oud-Holland 5 (1887), pp. 52-61, esp. p. 60. Given the extremely heavy cast, the bronze was probably produced by a bell or weapons foundry. Long in the possession of the municipality Amsterdam, the piece may have been made, for example, for the display room of the municipal foundry or a local civic militia guard.

Compositionally almost identical to the present bronze – albeit the arms and legs in mirror image – is a wood-carved and polychromed cannoneer in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, which likewise misses the cannon.⁸⁸Amsterdam Museum, inv. no. BA 2380, see M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 145 (identified as a fencer ). The connection between the two statuettes is unclear. Because each is a mirror image of the other, one may exclude the possibility that the wooden figure served as the casting model for the bronze. Stylistically, Neurdenburg linked the wooden figure to Pieter Xaveri (c. 1647-1673), an Antwerp sculptor active in Leiden from 1670 until his death three years later.⁹⁹E. Neurdenburg, De zeventiende eeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden: Hendrick de Keyser, Artus Quellinus, Rombout Verhulst en tijdgenooten, Amsterdam 1948, p. 245, M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, p. 211. While some similarity to Xaveri’s often caricatural figures can be observed, the unwieldy design of both the wooden and the bronze figure fails to justify the attribution of either work to his oeuvre.

A comparable bronze of a man standing in virtually the same pose, bears the monogram ‘GVM’ and the year ‘1747’.¹⁰¹⁰Formerly in the possession of the Tomasso Brothers (Leeds/London). Photos in Object File RMA. The identity of the individual to whom the monogram belonged has not yet been ascertained. This statuette appears to be a later adaptation of the same prototype as the present bronze. The most significant modification concerns the style of the militiaman’s raiment, which corresponds with the date inscribed on the bronze.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 325, with earlier literature; M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 147

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'anonymous, Cannoneer, Amsterdam, c. 1670 - c. 1700', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035768