Modelled and fired. Coated with a finishing layer. The bust stands on a base which is integrated on the reverse and worked with a serrated modelling spatula.

The top of the shell on the forehead is missing.

Commissioned by Jacob Temminck (1677-1755), c. 1712; …; from Eugène Albert Garnier Heldewier, Besançon (France), on loan to the museum, since 1877; acquired by the museum, 1894

Object number: BK-NM-3324

These busts of Amphitrite (shown here) and Neptune (BK-NM-3326) are terracotta models of wooden busts at the corners of the cornice of Huis Sint Janshoofd at 101 Keizersgracht in Amsterdam that is richly ornamented with foliage (fig. a). The premises were commissioned shortly after 1712 by the wealthy Amsterdam citizen Jacob Temminck (1677-1755). He was not only a merchant and banker, but also owned whaling ships. The two sea gods refer to the latter.

In 1971 Fischer associated the busts on stylistic grounds with the artistic circle of the Amsterdam sculptor Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732).¹¹E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, p. 293. Later that art historian was able to attribute the entire gable top of Huis Sint Janshoofd more specifically to the brother-in-law and conceivable master of this sculptor: the sculptor/architect Anthonie Turck (c. 1668-1725).²²P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 78. Turck had himself been trained by the Amsterdam architect Pieter Adolfsz de Zeeuw and shortly afterwards began his own construction company, which soon expanded to become the largest and most important in the city.

Although, according to Fischer, the wooden busts on the gable top of Huis Sint Janshoofd could have been made by Turck, the terracotta preliminary studies differ too much stylistically to attribute them to him. They would have been modelled by one of Turck’s pupils or assistants. Although Fischer does not give this as an option, it is very possible that it was Ignatius van Logteren,³³See P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 79-80. who worked for a long time – until around 1717 – on his brother-in-law’s projects.⁴⁴P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 104. The heads of Van Logteren’s standing Juno and Pluto figures from a series of sculptures deriving from country house Boom en Bosch (now in the Lauwersgrachtpark in Arnhem) are akin to the present busts of sea gods.⁵⁵P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 110-23. The fact that early in his career Van Logteren was already a skilled modeller, is confirmed by his allegorical terracotta putti dated ‘1710’ in the Amsterdam Museum.⁶⁶M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, nos. 230 and 231.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 363; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 79-80

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'workshop of Anthonie Turck and possibly Ignatius van Logteren, Bust of Amphitrite, Amsterdam, c. 1712', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035803