Hollow, indirect cast. The scalloped rim of the shell was modelled separately in the wax and then applied to the object before casting. The underside of the object is filled with iron and lead. This is probably an early repair, carried out immediately after casting to rejoin the dolphin’s snout, which was broken off along a large horizontal seam. The method used to repair the bronze is a combination between a cast-on repair (with the original piece rather than a new part) and a patch. The restoration was then partly concealed by a thick surface coating. There are various repaired flaws, for instance above the dolphin’s dorsal fin. The overall surface appearance is the result of a dark lacquer patina and heavy green corrosion, covered by a layer of wax. It is unclear how this object could have functioned as a salt-cellar or an inkwell, since no corrosion products which could indicate the use of salt have been found, and there are several holes in the bottom, so that it could not have held ink.
Alloy ternary alloy with some zinc and lead; copper with high impurities (Cu 93.00%; Zn 3.84%; Sn 0.09%; Pb 1.22%; Sb 0.34%; As 1.35%; Fe 0.19%; Ni 0.16%; Ag 0.09%)

Van Langh in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 45 on p. 169

…; from the dealer D. Peel, London, £ 475, to the museum, 1960

Object number: BK-1960-30

This elegant Arion sitting on a dolphin holds an open oyster-like shell instead of a lyre, so the statuette can be used as an inkwell or a salt-sellar. The curled edges of the shell serve as a pen rest. Nevertheless it is debatable whether this bronze was originally conceived as such. The subject is not unknown for this type of artefact, Theuerkauff referred to sixteenth-century examples from Italy and Germany,¹¹E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, no. 299. but the bronze is much more convincing as the design for a fountain figure. It would therefore seem likely that the sculptor has refashioned a scale model for a large fountain statue and turned it into an inkwell or salt cellar.

Leeuwenberg attributed the bronze to an unknown sculptor from the circle of Gabriel Grupello (1644-1730), a view that was not shared by Kultermann in his monograph on the sculptor.²²U. Kultermann, Gabriel Grupello, Berlin 1968, no. 44. In 1971 Theuerkauff also went no further than a general indication as ‘Netherlands, before 1690’.³³E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, no. 299. These unsatisfactory attributions have not been revised since then. And yet it is by no means impossible that Grupello himself actually was the maker of this attractive artefact cum fountain design. There is much common ground with his documented sculpture. The somewhat staring and ‘empty’ faces of his figures, which seem to have been conceived more for their decorative, elegant qualities than their specific expression, are typical of his style. The bronze also displays this characteristic – a legacy from Grupello’s years in Paris. The handling of the folds, the modelling of the body and the female facial type with pointed chin are very like Grupello’s Narcissus in Brussels, while the elaborate convolutions of the shell and the dolphin echo the curling fishtails, the fluttering manes, the nostrils and the undulating fins of the hippocampi on the baroque wall fountain that he made for the Brussels fishmongers’ guild around 1675.⁴⁴E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, figs. 3. 4. 6; 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. 947-52. The crest on the head of the dolphin also recurs exactly in the tresses of Grupello’s figures on this wall fountain. We can also identify a resemblance to the allegorical bronzes the sculptor made for Kassel around 1697.⁵⁵E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, nos. 40, 41. The likelihood that the Rijksmuseum bronze was derived from a design for a large fountain statue is demonstrated by comparing it with Grupello’s little terracotta modello for the marble Narcissus, which is only three centimetres smaller.⁶⁶E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, no. 35, fig. 21. The two figures are so redolent of the same atmosphere and style that it justifies the question as to whether the design for the Amsterdam Arion was not originally intended for the same ensemble. The Narcissus was made around 1680-85, probably for the Thurn und Taxis family in Brussels from whose collection it comes.

During his apprenticeship with the fountain maker and lead statue caster Johan Larson (active c. 1659-d. 1664) in The Hague,⁷⁷F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, esp. p. 57. Grupello must have become familiar with making fountain sculpture, a specialism that was almost unknown in the Netherlands. This not only explains his involvement in the Brussels wall fountain, but also the large Venus fountain for Het Loo Palace commissioned by King William III, and his penchant for mythological themes that have to do with water. The Amsterdam bronze also testifies to this aspect of his oeuvre.

Frits Scholten, 2025
This entry was originally published in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 45

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 353, with earlier literature; U. Kultermann, Gabriel Grupello, Berlin 1968, pp. 256-57, no. 44; E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, no. 299; Scholten in F. Scholten, M. Verber et al., From Vulcan’s Forge: Bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450-1800, exh. cat. London (Daniel Katz Ltd.)/Vienna (Liechtenstein Museum) 2005-06, no. 45

Frits Scholten, 2025, 'attributed to Gabriel Grupello, Inkwell or Salt-Cellar with Arion on the Dolphin, Southern Netherlands, c. 1680 - c. 1690', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035797