…; from the gardens of country house Enghuizen near Lochem, to the dealer A. Nijstad, Lochem, c. 1948;¹¹The house burned down in 1948. from whom purchased by the museum, with six other vases (BK-16444-A, -B; BK-16445-A, -B; BK-16446-A, -B) for a total of fl. 20,000, 1950

Object number: BK-16443

Together with his father Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732), Jan van Logteren (1709-1745) was one of Amsterdam’s most productive stucco artists and sculptors in the first half of the eighteenth century.²²For his oeuvre, cf. P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, chapter 4. After Ignatius’ death Jan continued independently with the flourishing workshop specialising in architectural and garden sculpture. Garden urns would also have been an important part of the repertoire – as was the case with father and son Baurscheit, who operated a similarly sizeable workshop in Antwerp. Yet, as far as we know, this is the only remaining vase from the Van Logterens’ oeuvre. The garden vases which Ignatius van Logteren made for Driemond country estate and which were transferred in 1770 to Reygersbroek estate, have been missing ever since.³³P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 412.

The garden vase stems from the period in which Jan van Logteren headed the workshop. He signed it in full, twice (on either side) – with due pride – in running script and dated it 1737.⁴⁴For this writing, see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 352. On the body of the vase he added two attractive mythological scenes in high relief which can be interpreted as the contrast between ‘unfree’ (enforced) and ‘free’ (true) love.

One side shows the enforced marriage of Venus to Vulcan. Jupiter, the instigator, is sitting to the right on a cloud. He has one hand resting on the head of his eagle and holds his bolt of lightning in the other. He is ordering Venus the goddess of beauty who stands before him, to marry the lame old Vulcan beside her. She holds out her left arm to Jupiter in a gesture of incomprehension. The jug forged by Vulcan containing nectar that clouded Jupiter’s mind and caused this foolish deed, stands between them.

On the other side (shown here) an episode is depicted from the lesser known story of Apollo and the shepherdess Issé that was popularized in the long-successful operatic pastorale héroique of 1697 by André Cardinal Destouches (Issé).⁵⁵In the past this scene was incorrectly interpreted as a depiction of Apollo courting Daphne (J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 369 and P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 411). The shepherd’s staff held by Apollo is clearly a reference to the story of Apollo and Issé, cf. B. Lossky, ‘L’Apollon et Issé dans l’oeuvre de François Boucher’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1954), no. 2, pp. 237-42. The deity, recognisable by his laurel wreath and lyre, is kneeling in a country setting before Issé, who is sitting on his left on a rock. He is accompanied by two sheep and holds a shepherd’s staff. Apollo, disguised as a simple shepherd, had seduced Issé, who had fallen head over heels in love with him. This is portrayed by the winged god of love, Eros, who is standing behind her holding a flaming torch. Apollo, convinced of Issé’s true love for him, reveals his real identity. Although she listens with disbelief, the divine rays around Apollo’s head reinforce his story.

The handles of the vase are decorated with mascarons of fauns with rams’ horns.⁶⁶Fischer associated these heads with the oracle of Zeus-Amon, see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 411. The decorative elements of the vase are still completely symmetrically arranged according to the late Louis-XIV style. Nothing in the design heralds the fanciful rococo style that would make a potent debut in the sculptor’s work at the end of that same year (1737).⁷⁷P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 426-28.

The vase came from the former country house Enghuizen near Lochem.⁸⁸For this country residence, see J. Harenberg, Adelijke Huizen in het richterambt Doesborgh, Doesburg 1990. At the same time, the Rijksmuseum purchased in 1950 another six vases from the same property,⁹⁹See ‘Provenance’. including a set of garden vases of 1714 by Jacob Cressant (BK-16444-A and -B) which had stood together with this piece in the hall of the mansion. The other four (BK-16445-A, -B, BK-16446-A and -B) were situated in the garden. At the start of the eighteenth century the original medieval Enghuizen castle was replaced by a palatial mansion with rounded wings on either side. In 1835 that complex was also torn down to make way for a grandiose country residence in Italian palazzo style. The garden vases survived a bombing in the Second World War and a fire that finally destroyed the building in 1948. The seven vases were not all intended for Enghuizen from the start (perhaps none of them were), since the two Cressant vases dating from 1714 were moved in 1744 from Elsenburg in Maarsen to Zijdebalen estate near Utrecht, and only ended up at Enghuizen after a sale in 1819. Nothing is known about the provenance of the other vases prior to 1948.¹⁰¹⁰P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 412, suggested that the Van Logteren vase was originally from Meer-en-Berg villa near Heemstede where the sculptor had made other garden ornaments, but there is no evidence whatsoever to confirm that.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025