Sculpted in relief.

There is some surface dirt.

? Commissioned by Dirk van Lennep Dirksz (1693-1755) for his house 476 Herengracht, Amsterdam, 1730;¹¹P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 277-78, 343. ? acquired by Jean de Wolff (d. 1735), 13 November 1733;²²On 13 November 1733 Jean de Wolff purchased much of Dirk van Lennep Dirksz’ bankruptcy assets, including the ‘marble… Bas-relief and Chimney piece’ which is possibly identical to the relief in question. A few months later, on 6 January 1734, Wolff also purchased the house. In inventories of the estate of after 1733, there is no further mention of the marble chimney piece. C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Het Huis Heerengracht 476’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 39 (1942), pp. 35-88, esp. pp. 49ff. …; from the dealer Goudstikker, Amsterdam, fl. 900, to the museum, 1933

Object number: BK-14577

This chimney piece signed by the Amsterdam sculptor Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732) and dated 1730, depicts the mythological lovers Venus and Adonis. The goddess is looking anxiously at Adonis, who is about to go hunting. Her concern was justifiable. During the hunt, the beautiful young man was mortally wounded by a wild boar at the instigation of one of Venus’ jealous lovers (Ovid, Met. 10: 708-739).

Van Logteren drew inspiration for the composition from the print of Venus and Adonis in Mattys Pool’s influential book of engravings after the ivory works by the renowned Amsterdam sculptor Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692) which had been published three years previously.³³Mattys Pool, Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnijder Francis van Bossuit, in ivoor gesneden en geboetseerd, Amsterdam 1727, pl. XXII, see RKD image no. 215608. Fischer claims, incorrectly, that the entire representation is a mirror image and therefore Van Logteren had not used the engraving, but the ivory original (now lost?) or ‘rather, an academic replica of the drawing by the then long deceased (Barend) Graat’, 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. 277. The prints in Mattys Pool’s book are based on drawings by Barend Graat after Francis van Bossuit’s original ivories. This is a free interpretation. For instance, Van Logteren switched the places of the figures, so that it is not Venus but Adonis who is sitting on the right, holding out his hand lovingly to his beloved. Van Logteren omitted the angel featured in the print holding a wreath above the lovers’ heads and the putto on the right having a tête-à-tête with a greyhound. Moreover, in his version, instead of one greyhound there are two, and he added two billing doves on the left. Although the relief is of above-average quality on the whole, Van Logteren did not manage to get Adonis’ legs anatomically correct or convincing as regards perspective.⁴⁴Fischer believes this part might conceivably have been carved by someone in the workshop, 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. 278. However, that is less obvious when the relief is placed well above eye level. Presumably it came from a monumental mantelpiece of comparable proportions to the two examples in the Kabinet der Koning (King’s Office) in The Hague made in the style of the architect Daniel Marot. They were decorated in 1734 with marble reliefs dating from 1707 by the Flemish sculptor Jan Claudius de Cock (1667-1735) from the collection of the building’s then owner, Johan van Schuylenburch.⁵⁵F. van Burkom et al. (eds.) Leven in toen: Vier eeuwen Nederlands interieur in beeld, Zwolle 2001, p. 97 (ill.).

The provenance of the present 1730 chimney piece is not documented, but as Fischer already suggested in 1973,⁶⁶J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 271. it might well have originated from the canal house at 476 Herengracht in Amsterdam.⁷⁷For more on this house see I.H. van Eeghen et al., Vier eeuwen Herengracht: Geveltekeningen van alle huizen aan de gracht: Twee historische overzichten en de beschrijving van elk pand met zijn eigenaars en bewoners, Amsterdam 1976, pp. 567-78; W. Zaal, Het huis aan de Bocht: Herengracht 476, Amsterdam 2001; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 274-78. At that time Van Logteren was entrusted with the sculptural decoration of that house which is located in what is known as the Golden Bend, the most expensive part of Herengracht. Although the representation is not specified, an estate inventory of 13 November 1733 mentions that there was ‘in the Dining room…marble… Bas-relief on the Chimney piece’.⁸⁸C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Het Huis Heerengracht 476’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 39 (1942), pp. 35-88, esp. p. 49; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 332-49. That could be the piece in question.

In February 1730 the Baptist merchant Dirk van Lennep (1693-1755) had acquired the house at 476 Herengracht together with country house Meer-en-Berg in Heemstede from the estate of his late wife Catharina de Neufville (d. 1729), who in turn had inherited it only five months before her death from her father, David de Neufville (1654-1729). Dirk van Lennep went ahead with the ambitious renovations to 476 Herengracht and to Meer-en-Berg set in motion by his father in-law around 1728. His sister-in-law Petronella de Neufville had the ‘sister house’ across the canal at 475 Herengracht remodelled in a similar style, starting in 1731. They employed the same artists for the decorative work, including Jacob de Wit for the murals and Ignatius van Logteren for the sculptural work. When the latter died in October 1732 his son, Jan van Logteren, proceeded with the work for Petronella de Neufville at 475 Herengracht.⁹⁹For the house at 475 Herengracht see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 332-49. However, the planned interior decorations at number 476 were discontinued. Van Lennep had run into great financial problems in 1732 which resulted in his family putting him under guardianship, and in his bankruptcy. The list of creditors dated 8 May 1733 reveals that Van Lennep still owed Ignatius van Logteren (by then deceased) almost 4,000 guilders for unsettled bills.¹⁰¹⁰C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Het Huis Heerengracht 476’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 39 (1942), pp. 35-88, esp. p. 53 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. 277. On 6 January 1734 Jean de Wolff, a brother of Catharina van Lennep’s first husband, acquired the building. A few months earlier, on 13 November 1733, he had already purchased much of the bankruptcy estate by private contract, including the foregoing marble chimney piece in the dining room. As mentioned, it could have been the relief featured here.¹¹¹¹C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Het Huis Heerengracht 476’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 39 (1942), pp. 35-88, esp. pp. 48-49.

We know of no other records of the work prior to its acquisition in 1933 by the Rijksmuseum. Contrary to Leeuwenberg’s hypothesis,¹²¹²J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 271. the chimney piece is unlikely to be identical to ‘A Venus and Adonis by Van Logteren’ in the sizeable collection of the Amsterdam Baptist pharmacist Jeronimo de Bosch that was sold in 1767.¹³¹³Sale collection Jeronimo de Bosch, Amsterdam (De Bosch and Yver), 5 October 1767, nos. 26 and 27, fl. 5, to Jan Lamberts, P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 301 under no. 6. The very small sum the object made in the sale (together with an anonymous figure of Venus) – a paltry 5 guiders – plus the listing of the object in the sale catalogue among other small-sized items, is a strong indication that the work was of modest size.¹⁴¹⁴F. Scholten, ‘Een terracotta portret van graaf Johan Maurits’, Mauritshuis in Focus 13 (2000), no. 1, pp. 23-34, esp. p. 32. However, this does not exclude the possibility that this was an unknown preliminary study or bozzetto of the present chimney piece.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 367, with earlier literature; P.M. Fischer, ‘Flora en Bacchus en de beeldhouwers Van Logteren’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), pp. 3-6, p. 3; F. Scholten, ‘Een terracotta portret van graaf Johan Maurits’, Mauritshuis in Focus 13 (2000), no. 1, pp. 22-34, esp. p. 32; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 277-78, 343; Scholten in R. Baarsen et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1700-1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2006, p. 223.

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Ignatius van Logteren, Venus and Adonis, Chimney Piece, Amsterdam, 1730', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035808