Modelled and fired. Coated with a cream coloured finishing layer.

The fingers of Neptune’s left hand and his trident are missing. The hippocamp’s ear is broken. There is a crack in Neptune’s left forearm.

…; sale collection Michiel Oudaan (c. 1702-1766), Rotterdam (J. Bosch et al.), 3 November 1766, p. 171, no. 10, fl. 5:5:0, to Jan Snellen (1711-1787), Rotterdam;¹¹Copy RMA; R.J.A. te Rijdt, ‘Een ‘nieuw’ portret van een ‘nieuwe’ verzamelaar van kunst en naturaliën: Jan Snellen geportretteerd door Aert Schouman in 1746’, Oud Holland 111 (1997), pp. 22-53, esp. p. 35. by descent to Samuel Constant Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880), The Hague; from whom acquired by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-2939

In the 1766 sale catalogue of the considerable collection of the Rotterdam merchant Michiel Oudaan, this unsigned terracotta figure of Neptune was entered as a work by Jacob Cressant (before 1685-d. after 1759/before 1766).²²Sale collection Michiel Oudaan (c. 1702-1766), Rotterdam (J. Bosch et al.), 3 November 1766, p, 171, no. 10. His authorship is confirmed by the close affinity with a terracotta in the Six Collection (fig. a) which bears the sculptor’s monogram as well as his signature.³³I.C.I (front of plinth) and I. CRESSANT (side of plinth). The latter piece is the modello of the marble figure of Neptune signed by Cressant and dated 1746 which used to be housed in the (former) Hôpital Cantonal Beau-Séjour in Geneva.⁴⁴W. Deonna, ‘Une statue de Cressent a Genève’, Geneva: revue d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie 18 (1940), pp. 114-18; Cornelis Troost en zijn tijd: Schilderijen en pastellen, teekeningen, beeldhouwwerken, meubelen, aardewerk, porcelein, zilver, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans) 1946, p. 59; D. de Kool, ‘Het oeuvre van Jacobus Cressant in beeld’, Oud Utrecht Jaarboek 2018, pp. 142-63, esp. p. 152 (fig. below). This is a building dating from round 1910 which could not, therefore, have been the original destination of the stone statue. The present terracotta has the same primary compositional ingredients and is probably a preliminary study for the foregoing sculpture.⁵⁵According to Theuerkauff the composition can actually be traced back to an Italian prototype, ascribed to Vicenzo Danti (1530-1576), see C. Theuerkauff, Elfenbein: Sammlung Reiner Winkler Band II, Munich 1994, p. 143. In his eventual version, only Neptune’s torso and the positioning of his left leg were largely left unchanged. Cressant moved the hippocamp to the other side and adjusted the pose of the figures. For instance, Neptune is no longer lifting his cloak rather weakly with his right hand, but has his trident firmly grasped in both hands. Cressant has magnified the dramatic appearance of the hippocamp by turning its head more towards the spectator, and opening its mouth further. Thanks to these slight, yet essential adjustments, he succeeded in increasing the baroque effect considerably.

French-born Jacob Cressant was working in Utrecht from around 1728. There, together with well-known sculptors like Jan Baptist Xavery and Jan van der Mast, he produced garden ornaments for the pleasure garden at the estate of Zijdebalen (cf. BK-16444-A and -B).⁶⁶For Cressant, see J. Knoef, ‘De beeldhouwer Jacobus Cresant’, Oud Holland 58 (1941), pp. 169-77, R. Baarsen et al., Rococo in Nederland, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, p. 179 and D. de Kool, ‘Het oeuvre van Jacobus Cressant in beeld’, _Oud Utrecht Jaarboek_2018, pp. 142-63. In 1740 Cressant moved to Amsterdam, where he stayed until his return to France in 1750 to take up the appointment of professeur-adjoint at the Paris Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Nothing is known about the commissioning of the marble Neptune. In 1746, the year marked on the figure, Cressant was working in Amsterdam, where he undertook civic, ecclesiastical and private assignments. In Amsterdam his social circle included the well-known collector Gerrit Braamcamp, who owned no fewer than ten terracottas, a wax model and an ivory by Cressant.⁷⁷C. Bille, De tempel der kunst of het kabinet van den heer Braamcamp, 2 vols., Amsterdam 1961, pp. 44-45. Sale collection Gerrit Braamcamp, Amsterdam, 31 July 1771, pp. 205-07, nos. 5-15 and p. 222, no. 64. One of the terracottas in the collection was described in a sale catalogue as: ‘Height 121/2 inches. Earth. Neptune with his Triton, beside him a Hippocamp. This piece is attractively made’.⁸⁸Hoog 121/2 duim. Aarde. Nepthunus met zyn Drietand, ter zyde van hem ziet men een Zeepaard. Dit stuk is fraay gemaakt. Sale collection Gerrit Braamcamp, Amsterdam (Van der Schley et al.), 31 July 1771, p. 205, no. 7. The ‘121/2 inches’ works out at 32.1 centimetres – a height that corresponds exactly with the terracotta in the Six Collection and so can in all probability can be identified as such. However, the fact that Braamcamp had the model of the ultimate marble figure in his collection does not necessarily mean he can be associated with the commission of the sculpture. Braamcamp was a passionate collector of small-scale sculptures and his collection contained more models for projects which he had not initiated.⁹⁹The wax model Cressant submitted for the pulpit of the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht in 1751 is one such object, see sale collection Gerrit Braamcamp, Amsterdam (Van der Schley et al.), 31 July 1771, p. 207, no. 15. This model was not used in the end. The eventual pulpit, created in 1756 by the sculptor Asmus Frauen (c. 1707-1779) follows a design by Jan van der Linden. It was erected with funds bequeathed by the merchant Henricus van der Vugt, see T.W. Jensma, De preekstoel in de Grote of Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk van Dordrecht, Dordrecht 1984, pp. 5, 9-10; D. de Kool, ‘Het oeuvre van Jacobus Cressant in beeld’, Oud Utrecht Jaarboek 2018, pp. 142-63, esp. p. 154.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 394; C. Theuerkauff, Elfenbein: Sammlung Reiner Winkler Band II, Munich 1994, p. 143; D. de Kool, ‘Het oeuvre van Jacobus Cressant in beeld’, Oud Utrecht Jaarboek 2018, pp. 142-63, esp. pp. 151-52

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Jacob Cressant, Neptune with a Hippocamp, Amsterdam, c. 1746', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035832