Modelled and fired.

Various minor surface points of damage; old restoration of the collar; five buttons on the jerkin.

…; private collection, Middelburg, by 1906;¹¹Letter from B.W.F. van Riemsdijk, then director of the Rijksmuseum, 8 May 1906, regarding the bust, which was discovered in Middelburg, including a photo of the bust. …; the dealer C.J.J. Weegenaar, The Hague, c. 1968-c. 1984); coll. C.J.J. Weegenaar and Fritz Liefkes,²²Fritz Liefkes (d. 2010), was formerly curator of furniture at the Rijksmuseum. The Hague; Weegenaar-Liefkes Bequest,³³Bequeathed by the testamentary executor, J. Veenendaal. 2010

Object number: BK-2010-17

Credit line: Weegenaar-Liefkes Bequest, 2010

Together with his brother Johannes (‘Jan’) (1614-1656), Servatius (‘Servaes’) (de) Cardon (1608-1649) started out as an apprentice to his father, Fourcy (‘Forci’/‘Fosi’) Cardon (before 1580-after 1651), an antieksnijder (maker of decorative woodcarvings).⁴⁴For biographical information on Servaes and Johannes Cardon, see P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 834-35, and H. Bussers in Grove Art Online, 2003. At the time of the sculptor’s death in 1649, a second ‘Servaes Cardon’ is documented as a surgeon active in Calais. This individual assisted with the birth of a ‘monster’, i.e. a deformed child. Uncertain is whether this concerns a coincidental occurrence of the same name, or possibly a member of the same family; see T. Ghadessi, Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance: Dwarves, Hirsutes, and Castrati as Idealized Anatomical Anomalies, Kalamazoo 2018, p. 29 and note 73, referring to Recueil de Mélanges in quattro, Paris (concerning the widow d’ Anthoine Coulon) 1649, vol. 50, separation 17 (La naissance d’un monstre espouvantable, engendré d’une belle & jeune femme, native de Mark, à deux lieues de Calais, le vingt-troisième Fevrier 1649). Both brothers succeeded in becoming prominent sculptors in Antwerp, where they were involved in a number of major commissions for the Roman Catholic Church. In 1628, Forci Cardon paid Servaes’s master’s fee for entry into the Antwerp Guild of St Luke. Having apparently attained the level of master at the relatively young age of twenty, it may be assumed Servaes was highly gifted.⁵⁵See P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De liggeren en ander historische archieven der Antwerpse Sint Lucasgilde, vol. 1, The Hague 1864, p. 664 and FelixArchief Antwerp, Kunst en kunstenaars, I, Beeldhouwers 1600-1800, regesten uit notariële acten over beeldhouwers en architecten; nota’s F. van den Branden PK 2538-2539. Gazette van Antwerpen, no. Ab-707. My thanks to Prof Dr Katlijne van der Stighelen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (written correspondence 11 August 2010). In 1640, he was registered in the guild both as a vrijmeester (free master) and so-called wijnmeester (a title reserved for the sons of a guild member) in the guild’s liggeren (archives). One year later, on 17 January 1641, he married Maria Anna Robijns in the presence of his father. Among the items listed in Cardon’s dowry are ‘various art works of carved ivory and stone, wood and other sculptures, prints and drawings, all based on broader indication and specification’ with an estimated value of 2000 guilders.⁶⁶diversche consten soo van gesneden yvoir en stenen, houten ende ander beelden, printen ende teeckeningen, alles naer breder uytwijsen en specificatie. Specified items listed as his possessions include models in wax and clay ‘modelled in Rome, also several in Antwerp with several things of plaster 500 guilders. Regarding drawings [made] in Rome, architecture books and other drawings of altars: 400 guilders. For several things of Ivory and of wood and thereby some raw Ivory and Avesnes stone 240 feet with the bench and iron staves with other accessories, chisels (?) and rasps that come from Rome 900 guilders, all together 2800 guilders.’⁷⁷gebotseert tot Rom, oock eenige in Antwerpen met eenige dinghen van plaester 500 gln. Aengaende teyckeninghe tot Rooomen geteyckent, hartchitect boecken en ander teyckeninge van autharen : 400 gln. Voir eenige dinghen van Ivoir en van hout en daerbij eenige rouwe Ivoir ende avendelsteen 240 voet met de bancke ende ysere hantboomen met andere toebehoorten, hanellen en raspen dewelck comen van Roomen 900 gln, alles samen 2800 gln; Antwerp, FelixArchief, Notarieel archief, Notary L. Nicola, N 2695 f-. These documented citations reveal that Cardon probably also specialized in ivory carving, though not a single work unfortunately survives to the present day. Further references to other works indicate the sculptor spent a period of time in Rome, from where in all probability he had just recently returned (most likely c. 1638). His Roman sojourn occurred at some point between 1628 and 1638, given the above-cited mention of his presence in Antwerp and his being commissioned to build the today non-extant marble high altar in the Sint-Jacobskerk in the same city in 1639.⁸⁸U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, vol. 5, p. 580. In the same year he was also paid 80 guilders for a now-lost Mariebeelt van steen, gestelt by de Vischmerct voor de Palinckbrugge (a stone statue of Mary, placed at the Fish Market in front of the Palingbrug).⁹⁹F. Prims, ‘Letterkundigen, Geleerden en Kunstenaars in de Rekeningen der stad Antwerpen 1576-1650’, Verslagen en mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde (1931), pp. 171-211, esp. p. 202, no. 240. The sculpture might be depicted on a painting of the Fish Market, signed and dated 1695 by Hendrik van Minderhout in the KMSKA, inv. no. 904. My thanks to Bieke van der Mark. With no further indication that Cardon might have been in Antwerp in the intervening years, it appears he spent considerable time in Italy. Noteworthy is the presence of his fellow Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) in Rome around the same time, from circa 1635 to 1639. Both sculptors are therefore certain to have known each other well during their stay in the city. Two terracottas by Cardon are listed in the estate inventory of Erasmus Quellinus (Artus’s older brother and main heir) – a ‘Judgement of Paris bas-relief modelled by Cordon’ and a ‘Neptune, Venus and Cupid modelled by Cordon’ – thus confirming a personal and artistic bond existing between the two artist’s families.¹⁰¹⁰een Vonnis van Paris bachereleeff gebotseert van Cordon en een Neptunus Venus en Cupido van Cordon geboetseert; E. Duverger, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, vol. 10, Brussels 1999, no. 3333 (probate inventory Erasmus Quellinus, including the inheritance of his brother, Artus, dated 7 November 1678 and 22, 24 and 27 March 1679), esp. pp. 352-53. A remarkable number of terracottas by (Servaes?) Cardon have also been preserved from the legacy of the Antwerp painter Jacob Jordaens, obtained via his grandson, Johan Jacob Wierts, and Wierts’s widow, Hillegonda Maria van Heemskerk, who died in 1733 in The Hague.¹¹¹¹A. Bredius, ‘Jacob Jordaens, beeldhouwer’, Onze Kunst, XIII (1914), pp. 107-10, esp. p. 109. My thanks to Bieke van der Mark, who brought this publication my attention. She left behind, among other things, ‘a standing Venus and Cupid’, and also a ‘group modelled by Cardon, depicting a holy family Mary with child and John with two angels’, ‘a wooden Cupid very artfully and elaborately carved by Cardon, on a small scale’, and ‘a bas-relief very rich with figures, sculpted by Cardon’. Most striking, again, is a Judgment of Paris, comprising five figures: a lion, a standing Juno with a peacock, a Venus, a Pallas and the seated Paris with an apple.¹²¹²Given the rarity of this theme in Netherlandish sculpture, one can only wonder if this composition might have inspired Gabriel Grupello’s monumental version executed in marble c. 1690-92; see U. Kultermann, Gabriel Grupello Berlin 1968, pp. 66, 67, 242 (nos. 17-19), and 288 (no. 150, seated Paris in bronze); F.M. Kammel, Die Marmorfigur des Paris von Gabriel Grupello, Nuremberg (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) 2006, esp. pp. 8-12, 22-24, and figs. 1, 3, 4, 12, 14, 15, and 18. Noteworthy is the accompanying annotation stating that the lion was modelled by ‘Quellinus of Amsterdam’, further underscoring the close ties between the two sculptors.

Like his brother Jan, Servaes Cardon worked for the Benedictine abbey of Afflighem, where he was responsible for the now lost pulpit in the oratory (1642). In that same year he also built an altar for the Sodaliteit van de Gehuwden (Sodality of the Wedded) in the professed house or ‘sodality building’ of the Jesuits, followed two years later by the altar for the Sodaliteit van de Jongmans (Sodality of the Young Men) in the same building. Cardon himself had been a member of this latter brotherhood since 1628.¹³¹³P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De liggeren en ander historische archieven der Antwerpse Sint Lucasgilde, vol. 1, The Hague 1864, pp. 664-65. Archival data also confirms his involvement in an altar for the Sint-Barbarakerk in Aalst (1646), the main altar of the Sint-Amelbergekerk in Zandhoven with statues of St Peter, St Paul and a Christ as Salvator Mundi (completed 1648),¹⁴¹⁴See P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 834-35. and the high altar for the Carthusians in Lier (commissioned in June 1648). This last project was possibly never completed as a result of Cardon’s death at some point between January and August 1649.¹⁵¹⁵On 8 January 1649, Servaes signed an additional agreement with his father, with Maria Anna Robijns bearing witness as his widow on 30 August, see FelixArchief Antwerp, Kunst en kunstenaars, I, Beeldhouwers 1600-1800, regesten uit notariële acten over beeldhouwers en architecten; nota’s F. van den Branden PK 2538-2539. Gazette van Antwerpen, no. b-707.

Despite Servaes Cardon’s prolific artistic career, remarkably few examples of his autonomous sculpture survive to the present day, with only four works securely attributed to his name. A terracotta statuette of the apostle St Paul signed ‘Ser Cardon’ in the Louvre was made as a study for one of the statues on the main altarpiece in the Sint-Amelbergakerk in Zandhoven (fig. a).¹⁶¹⁶Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 2325, see P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, p. 834, fig. 1. Several terracotta statuettes of the Virgin and Child by Jan Cardon have been preserved, see ibid. p. 835, figs. 1-2 and C. Baisier et al., Terracotta’s uit de 17de en 18de eeuw: De verzameling Van Herck, coll. cat. Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) 2000, pp. 40, 41; A. Jacobs and S. Vézilier, Fascination Baroque: La Sculpture Baroque Flamande dans les Collections Publiques françaises, exh. cat. Cassel (Musée départemental de Flandre) 2011-12, no. 5. From the Zandhoven altarpiece, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 7767. Bearing the monogram ‘C.S.F.’ are two rather stiffly executed marble all’antica busts of a man and a woman that surfaced on the French art market; judging by the characteristic treatment of the hair, they too are indisputably by Cardon’s hand.¹⁷¹⁷Paris, Galerie Gismondi (Tefaf Maastricht 2019). A now untraceable terracotta Bacchus by Servaes Cardon, was in the collection Capouillet in Brussels in 1913, see A. Jacobs and S. Vézilier, Fascination Baroque: La Sculpture Baroque Flamande dans les Collections Publiques françaises, exh. cat. Cassel (Musée départemental de Flandre) 2011-12, p. 50. The fourth surviving work is the present terracotta bust of an anonymous man in the Rijksmuseum, in fact Cardon’s only known portrait bust. Signed and dated with the sculptor’s full signature, the sculpture was evidently intended as an autonomous portrait. As documented with other major works, the terracotta may very well be the model for a marble bust.¹⁸¹⁸Cf. Rombout Verhulst’s terracotta models for marble busts of Willem van Liere, Maria van Reijgersberg, Jacob van Reygersberg and Isaac Sweers. All four models are preserved at the Rijksmuseum, respectively inv. nos. BK-NM-11957-A, -B, BK-NM-11557, and BK-2016-102-1. While the question of the sitter’s identity remains (as yet) unresolved, no doubt exists regarding the importance of this sculpture as an example of the baroque portrait sculpture that evolved in Flanders under the influence of Rubens, Van Dyck and other Flemish painters in the seventeenth century.

The sitter is portrayed at the approximate age of forty years. He has a short goatee, a moustache and long wavy hair, and is dressed in a jerkin and mantle worn over a high-fitting shirt and a flat collar.¹⁹¹⁹My thanks to Bianca du Mortier for the accurate description of the clothing. The undulating folds of the mantle and the neatly ‘combed’ locks of hair are characteristic of Cardon’s style – an approach ostensibly resorting back to the manner of François du Quesnoy stylized treatment of hair in Rome.²⁰²⁰Cf. Du Quesnoy’s bust of the ‘Nano di Créqui’, see E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and the Greek Ideal, New Haven 2007, pp. 102-05 and figs. 83, 84. The aforementioned pair of marble busts displays similar details, as does the terracotta St Paul, with the hair and beard rendered virtually the same. A stylistic affinity to Cardon’s signed works can also be observed an imposing, unsigned terracotta bust of a satyr in the collection of the Rubenshuis, formerly attributed to Lucas Faydherbe.²¹²¹H. De Nijn, H. Vlieghe and H. Devisscher (eds.), Lucas Faydherbe 1617-1697: Mechels beeldhouwer en architect, exh. cat. Mechelen (Stedelijk Museum Hof van Busleyden) 1997, no. 29. Additionally, the unsigned bust of an anonymous man with moustache and goatee, executed in terracotta and measuring 61 cm high, can plausibly be ascribed to the sculptor on stylistic grounds.²²²²Sale London (Sotheby’s), 7 April 1987, no. 187; sale London (Christie’s), 5 December 2013, no. 104 (as ‘Circle of Artus Quellinus the Elder’); Important European Terracottas, sale cat. London (Tomasso Brothers Fine Art)/ New York (Carlton Hobbs LLC) 2018, no. 6 (as ‘Servaes Cardon’). My thanks to Dr Charles Avery for photos of this work (written correspondence, 24 November 2017), see the Object File. Here too one observes the same perfectly striated strands of hair as found on the Amsterdam bust, albeit stylized to a lesser degree and without waves. Other elements are also quite similar, including the rendering of the eyes and drapery folds. This bust has previously been situated in the ‘circle of Quellinus the Elder’.

Frits Scholten, 2025

Kunsthandelaar en verzamelaar, exh, cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum/ CINOA) 1970, no. 111, fig. 182; H. Bussers, ‘Cardon’, Grove’s Dictionary of Art, vol. 5, London 1996, p. 733; Jaarverslag, Amsterdam 2010 (annual report Rijksmuseum), p. 33; F. Scholten, ‘Acquisitions: Sculpture’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 62 (2014), pp. 298-99 (no. 5); Important European Terracottas, sale cat. London (Tomasso Brothers Fine Art)/ New York (Carlton Hobbs LLC) 2018, pp. 30-33 (figs. 1-3)

F. Scholten, 2025, 'Servaes Cardon, Bust of an Unknown Man, Antwerp, 1646', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20077732