Carved in the round from a single piece of solid ivory.

Good.

? Commissioned by Adam Oortmans (1622-1684) and his wife Petronella Oortmans-De La Court (1624-1707), Amsterdam, c. 1682-92;¹¹Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), archive 5338 (notary G. Ypelaar), fols. 553 ff., Inventaris van den boedel en nalatenschap van wijlen Juffr. Petronella de la Court weduwe van wijlen d’Heer Adam Oortmans in dato 16 Augusti 1707, fol. 634 (Op de witte Zaal): Een ijvore Mars van Francis (An ivory Mars by Francis), with as its pendant, Een dito Venus, beijde met ebbehoute pedestale (A ditto Venus, both with ebony pedestal). her sale, Amsterdam (Raket/Zomer), 20-21 October 1707, pp. 19-20;²²Een Mars, staande op een Ebbenhoute Pedestal […] door den vermaarden Mr. Françis van Bossu, overkunstig uit ivoor gesneeden (A Mars, standing on an Ebony Pedestal […] by the esteemed Mr Françis van Bossu, exquisitely carved from ivory).…;³³Tonneman unlikely acquired these works directly from Petronella de la Court’s sale in 1707, as at this time he was only twenty years of age. One may therefore assume there was probably an unknown buyer before him. My thanks to Margreet van der Hut (written communication, 15 March 2017) for this observation. sale collection Jeronimus Tonneman (1687-1750), Amsterdam (Hendrik de Leth), 21 October 1754, p. 8, no. 3,⁴⁴No. 3: 1 Herkules [sic], niet minder konstig, door Francis gesneeden, hoog 17 duim. (Hercules, no less beautiful, carved by Francis, height 17 thumbs). Because both the size and the pendant piece are accurate, one must assume that this was the Mars. No. 2 is the pendant piece: Een Venusbeeld zeer konstig van Ivoor gesneeden, waarvan nooit de weerga gezien is, door Francis, hoog 16 ½ duim, staande op een Ebbehoute voet. (A Venus statuette very beautifully carved from Ivory, of which the equal has never been seen, by Francis, height 16 ½ thumbs, standing on an Ebony pedestal.). fl. 1,000, to ‘De Smeth’;⁵⁵Copy RMA: ‘De Smeth’ (probably referring to Theodorus de Smeth). Copy RKD: ‘Ter Smitten’ (likely a misinterpretation of the name De Smeth). The same person also purchased No. 2 (Venus, the pendant piece). ? from collection Theodorus de Smeth (1710-1772), Lord of Deurne and Liessel, Amsterdam to ? his son Dirk de Smeth (1755-1779), 29 April 1773;⁶⁶On 29 April 1773, Theodorus de Smeth’s art collection was equally divided between his two sons, Pieter and Dirk, see L. Meerman, ‘An Unwritten Chapter of Dutch Collecting History: The Painting Collection of Pieter de Smeth van Alphen (1753-1810)’, Simiolus 40 (2018), no. 1, pp. 18-98, esp. pp. 24-25. Nevertheless, nowhere are the Mars and Venus mentioned in any of the sale catalogues of Pieter de Smeth van Alphen’s collection (Lugt 7842, 1-2 August 1810 (paintings); Lugt 7858, 3-5 September 1810 (medals); Lugt 7860, 5 September 1810 (books, prints, cards), from which one may tentatively conclude that both statuettes were allotted to Pieter’s brother, Dirk (that is, excluding the unlikely event that Theodorus de Smeth had previously sold the ivories during his lifetime). ? his son Theodorus Baron de Smeth (1779-1859), 1779;⁷⁷Following his untimely death in 1779, Dirk de Smeth’s collection was subsequently inherited by his then only two-month-old son, Theodorus de Smeth (1779-1859), who likely sold the ivories, perhaps after the death of his uncle, Pieter, in 1809. The buyer could very well have been Anna Maria Hogguer-Ebeling, who was capable of building an exceptional collection of art in part thanks to the capital of her husband, the banker Paul Iwan Hogguer. …; collection Jonkheer Paul Iwan Hogguer (1760-1816)⁸⁸His parents were Daniel Baron Hogguer, Count of Bignan (1722-1793), banker and merchant, and Henriette de Mauclerc (1726-1794). Hogguer was married twice: in 1788 to Anna Maria Ebeling (1767-1812), and in 1814, to Cornelia Margaretha van Weede (1769-1837). One daughter was born of the first marriage: Ernestina Henrietta Maria Paulina (1790-1811). ‘Hogguer’ is a francization of the Swiss surname ‘Högger’. Hogguer was from a banking family. A banking crisis in 1773 may possibly have forced Paul Hogguer’s father, himself a banker, to accept the position of gevolmachtigd minister bij de Nedersaksische Kreitz en de Hanzesteden (Minister Plenipotentiary of the Lower Saxony Kreitz and the Hanseatic Cities). Nevertheless, this failed to deter the son from seeking a career in the banking world. In 1787, Paul Hogguer ­- together with George Grand, a former member of the banking firm Fizeaux, Grand & Co., for which the younger Hogguer also worked - founded the banking firm Hogguer, Grand & Co. In 1795, the firm’s name was changed to ‘Hogguer & Co’. Hogguer was highly successful as a banker and managed to amass a large fortune. Between 1791 and 1795, he also held various civic functions as schepen (magistrate) and Commissioner of Naval Affairs in Amsterdam. In 1795, the city would lose its standing as a centre of the financial world - a consequence of the French occupation of the Netherlands. At this time, many of Amsterdam’s most prominent financial figures fled to England. Hogguer remained behind in Amsterdam, yet during this period it would appear he too withdrew from many of his previous endeavours, both in business and society. Following the departure of the French, Hogguer was appointed one of Amsterdam’s four burgomasters and as chief director of the Amsterdam Drawing Academy in 1814. Together with J. Bondt, he also acted as an advisor involved in the establishing of a central Dutch bank. When ‘De Nederlandse Bank’ opened its doors in April 1814, Hogguer presided as the bank’s first President-Director. See also Nationaal Archief, The Hague, De Nederlandsche Bank N.V., Archief van president Jhr. Paul Iwan Hogguer, 1814-1816, inv. no. 2.25.69.01. and his wife Anna Maria Hogguer-Ebeling (1767-1812), Amsterdam or Vreeland (Slotzicht mansion), in or before 1812; ? sale collection Anna Maria Hogguer-Ebeling (1767-1812), Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley), 18-21 August 1817, no. 28,⁹⁹Mars, een zwaard aangrijpende, met een schild aan zyn voeten; fraai door Francis Bossuet, in deszelfs werk bekend, onder No. 48, met een ronde glazen stolp, hoog 17 duimen (= 43.7 cm) (Mars, drawing a sword, with a shield at his feet; beautifully by Francis Bossuet, also in the same volume under No. 48, with a round glass bell jar, height 17 thumbs); the piece was sold for fl. 250 to one ‘Swebij’ (my thanks to Margreet van der Hut); Anna Maria Ebeling is also known as ‘Hogguer-Ebeling’ and as ‘Dame de Hoggens’. See also C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): ‘Beeldsnyder in yvoor’ʼ, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. p. 178, no. 45. fl. 250, to ‘Swebij’; ¹⁰¹⁰My thanks to Margreet van der Hut (written communication, 16 April 2014). …; from sale London (Sotheby’s), 11 October 1949, no. 89 (as ‘Italian, 16th century’),¹¹¹¹My thanks to Erik Bijzet, Amsterdam (written communication, 24 November 2019). £48, to the dealer Alfred Spero, London; …; from sale Geneva (Christie’s), 10 November 1976, no. 284 (as ‘Flemish, c. 1700’), SFrcs 70,000, to an anonymous buyer; …; from sale Paris (Drouot-Richelieu), 14 December 1998, no. 110, €1,600,000, to the museum, with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, with additional funding from the Prins Bernhard Fonds and P. van Dullemen

Object number: BK-1998-74

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, with additional funding from the Prins Bernhard Fonds and P. van Dullemen

Around 1680 – but certainly no later than 1682 – the Flemish ivory-carver Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692) arrived in Amsterdam, where he would remain working until his death in 1692.¹²¹²For Van Bossuit’s arrival in Amsterdam, see F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 33. Prior to this time, Van Bossuit had lived in Italy – Rome and Venice – for approximately twenty-five years, a period of critical importance for the future course of his career.¹³¹³For Van Bossuit’s Italian period, see E.D. Schmidt, Das Elfenbein der Medici: Bildhauerarbeiten für den Florentiner Hof, Munich 2012, pp.176-83. For Van Bossuit’s time in Venice, see M. Clemente, ‘Giusto le Court, Enrico Merengo e la Diana della collezione di Livio Odeschalchi’, Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’ Arte 38 (2015), pp. 39-49, esp. p. 49, document 5 (Archivio di Stato di Roma, Lettere scritti a D. Livio Odeschalchi. Lettera r, II E 8, letter dated 9 September 1679). This concerns a letter from Quintiliano Rezzonico of Venice addressed to the collector Livio Odeschalchi in Rome, in which he wholeheartedly recommends the services of the letter’s deliverer – il signor francesco Vanbosoit fiamengo ingegnoso intagliatore in legno (Mr Francesco Vanbosoit Fiamengo ingenious woodcarver) – to its recipient. For the correspondence between Rezzonico and Odeschalchi, see also M. Pizzo, ‘“Far Galleri”: Collezionismo e mercato artistico tra Venezia e Roma nelle letere di Quintiliano Rezzonico a Livio Odeschalchi (1676-1709)’, Bolletino del Museo Civico di Padova 89 (2000), pp. 43-84, and M. Pizzo, ‘Livio Odeschalchi e i Rezzonico: Documenti su arte e collezionismo alla fine del XVII secolo’, Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’ Arte 26 (2002), pp. 119-54. He was a member of the Bentvueghels, a company of Netherlandish artists residing in Rome, in which he adopted the moniker Waernemer (Observer). It was a name that conveyed Van Bossuit’s keen power of observation in terms of beauty: ‘one who observed the exceptionally beautiful parts and made them his own’, in the words of his later biographer, Mattys Pool.¹⁴¹⁴… een die de bysondre schoone deelen waarnam en sich eygen maakte, see Barent Graat and Mattys Pool, Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnyder Francis van Bossuit in yvoor gesneeden en geboetseert, Amsterdam 1727, pl. IV. In Rome, he would also presumably have moved in the same circles as Balthasar Permoser (1651-1632), an Austrian-born sculptor more than fifteen years his junior. He also maintained contact with the Florentine academy, where sculptors like Foggini and Marcellini were working in a similar late-baroque style.¹⁵¹⁵C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. pp. 133-39. According to Pool, Van Bossuit journeyed to Amsterdam in the company of the draughtsman and engraver Bonaventura van Overbeek (1660-1705).¹⁶¹⁶Following his death, Van Bossuit’s sketches of Roman antiquities were published under the title Reliquiae antiquiae urbis Romae (3 vols., Amsterdam 1708). Almost immediately upon his arrival in the Dutch Republic, Van Bossuit’s sculptures drew the attention of Dutch art lovers. Greatly fostered by Barent Graat and Mattys Pool’s Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnyder Francis van Bossuit in yvoor gesneeden en geboetseert […] (Sculptor’s Art-Cabinet by the Esteemed Sculptor Francis van Bossuit Carved and Modelled in Ivory), published in Amsterdam in 1727, Van Bossuit’s reputation endured long after his death, lasting well into the eighteenth century.¹⁷¹⁷F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. pp. 35-37; M. van der Hut in E. Schmidt and M. Sframeli (eds.), Diafane passioni: Avori barocchi dalle corti europee, Firenze/Livorno 2013, no. 81. This exceptional book – an early example of an illustrated artist’s monograph – includes a significant portion of the sculptor’s Amsterdam oeuvre, conveyed in the form of engravings. Serving as Graat and Pool’s primary source was the Amsterdam art collection of Petronella de la Court (1624-1707). Together with her husband, the brewer Adam Oortmans, Petronella was among the first to purchase Van Bossuit’s work. In the end, she managed to acquire ten of his ivory carvings,¹⁸¹⁸F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 33; Van Bossuit’s ivory reliefs in Petronella’s dollhouse bear the date 1682, see J. Pijzel-Dommisse, Het poppenhuis van Petronella de la Court, Utrecht/Antwerp 1987 and F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 32 and fig. 17. See also J. Warren, ‘Bathseba and Susanna: Two Ivory Reliefs by Francis van Bossuit’, in R. Marth and M. Trusted (eds.), Barocke Kunststückh: Sculpture Studies in Honour of Christian Theuerkauff, Munich 2011, pp. 66-72. with the couple’s fondness apparently so great, the husband took ivory-carving lessons given by ‘mr. Francis’.

Among the eight other works on display in Petronella de la Court’s art cabinet, the present ivory Mars – together with a Venus – was bestowed a special place of honour. In the inventory of her estate, the two figures are in fact described as pendants: An ivory Mars by Francis accompanied by A ditto Venus, both with ebony pedestals.¹⁹¹⁹Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), archive 5338 (notary G. Ypelaar), fols 553ff. (Inventaris van den boedel en nalatenschap van wijlen Juff. Petronella de la Court weduwe van wijlen d’Heer Adam Oortmans in dato 16 Augusti 1707), esp. fol. 634. F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 30. The Mars also appears in Van Pool’s Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet in the form of two engravings: a frontal view (fig. a) and a view from below (fig. b).²⁰²⁰Barent Graat and Mattys Pool, Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnyder Francis van Bossuit in yvoor gesneeden en geboetseert, Amsterdam 1727, pls. XLVIII and XLIX. The latter engraving’s function was to facilitate ceiling painters eager to copy such a work rendered in an exceptionally shortened perspective. Today, the Venus is likely held in a private collection in Switzerland.²¹²¹Oral communication by Alain Moatti, Paris (July 2013). As described in the sale catalogue of Petronella’s collection,²²²²Catalogus van een partye uitmuntende schoone rariteiten (...) nagelaten by Petronella de la Court, Amsterdam 20 and 21 October 1707, pp. 19-20; F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. pp. 30-31. the goddess of love appears standing. Kneeling at her feet is her son Anteros, who breaks the archer’s bow of his little brother, Amor. In all probability, this is the same group featured in a drawing by Willem van Mieris.²³²³F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. fig. 12. In the Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet, Venus and Anteros are portrayed in two individual engravings, separated for practical reasons.²⁴²⁴Barent Graat and Mattys Pool, Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnyder Francis van Bossuit in yvoor gesneeden en geboetseert, Amsterdam 1727, pls. XLV and C; F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. figs. 11, 13. As pendants, Mars’s act of withdrawing his sword forms an amusing, classical contraposition to Venus and the bow-breaking Anteros.

For quite some time after the sale of Petronella’s cabinet, the ivory Mars appears to have been passed from one Amsterdam collection to another. It is very likely the ‘ivory Mars’ to which the philosopher Frans Hemsterhuis was referring in his Lettre sur la Sculpture (Amsterdam 1769, but written in 1765) addressed to the Amsterdam banker and collector Theodorus de Smeth: ‘Should you ultimately desire a perfect example, with respect to all of this last contradiction, You simply need to consider Your statue of Mars in ivory, which perfectly clarifies my idea to you.’ (i.e. that with good sculpture, the subject and the expression of the befitting emotions correspond. Hemsterhuis likely believed the work in De Smeth’s possession lacked the desired level of martiality generally associated with the classical god of warfare).²⁵²⁵Si Vous voulez enfin un exemple parfait, sur tout de cette dernière contradiction, Vous n’avez qu’à regarder Votre statue de Mars en yvoire qui Vous expliquera parfaitement mon idée; F. Hemsterhuis, Lettre sur la Sculpture à Monsieur Théod. de Smeth, ancien président des echevins de la Ville de d’Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1769, p. 11. See also F. Scholten, ‘The Amsterdam Ivories of Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): Reception and Transformation in the Eighteenth Century’, in C. van Eck (ed.), Idols and Museum Pieces: The Nature of Sculpture, its Historiography and Exhibition History, 1640-1880, Berlin/Boston/Paris 2017, pp. 35-47, esp. p. 42. Theodorus de Smeth was married to Johanna van Ghesel (1709-1747), daughter of Jan van Ghesel (1668-1727) who appears in a portrait from c. 1677 by Barend Graat. It is my assumption that this portrait was commissioned by Jan’s parents, Jacob van Ghesel (1637-1683) and Sara Boddens (1633-1693), who may have been introduced to Francis van Bossuit’s work via Graat. A connection exists between the Van Ghesel family and the families of Dunois (portrait by Graat), Ruts and De Flines (related to Jan Agges, who was portrayed by Graat). My thanks to Margreet van Hut (written communication 15 April 2014). An indirect confirmation that the work described here is indeed Van Bossuit’s Mars comes from an engraving by Reinier Vinkeles (1764 design, 1768 publication) of a drawing class at the Amsterdamse Stadstekenacademie (Amsterdam Municipal Drawing Academy) in the Leidse Poort (RP-P-OB-84.654).²⁶²⁶F. Scholten, ‘The Amsterdam Ivories of Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): Reception and Transformation in the Eighteenth Century’, in C. van Eck (ed.), Idols and Museum Pieces: The Nature of Sculpture, its Historiography and Exhibition History, 1640-1880, Berlin/Boston/Paris 2017, pp. 35-47, esp. pp. 42-43 and fig. 7. The engraving shows a number of men – among them one of the academy’s directors, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel – drawing a male nude whose pose almost exactly matches that of the ivory Mars. Ploos van Amstel was friends with both De Smeth and Hemsterhuis and undoubtedly would have been familiar with the figure in De Smeth’s collection. He was also likely involved in the organization of the drawing session in question.

Mars is carved from a single large segment of elephant’s tusk. By its size alone, it was undoubtedly an eye-catching, costly piece, inevitably displayed in the middle of Petronella’s ‘white hall’. It most certainly drew the attention of the Leiden painter Willem van Mieris, who incorporated the sculpture numerous times in his paintings, such as the figure’s clothed rendering as Odysseus.²⁷²⁷E. Elen-Clifford Kocq van Breugel, ‘Sculpturen door Francis van Bossuit getekend door Willem van Mieris’, Delineavit et sculpsit 8 (1992), pp. 12-24; F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. fig. 40. Van Mieris had likely come into contact with Van Bossuit’s work via the Leiden branch of the De la Court family. Petronella’s grandnephew, the textile merchant and thinker Pieter de la Court (1664-1739)²⁸²⁸Pieter was the son of the republican thinker and economist Pieter de la Court (1618-1685). For more on Pieter and his brother Johan, see A. Weststeijn, Commercial Republicanism in the Dutch Golden Age: The Political Thought of Johan and Pieter de la Court, Leiden 2012. – and later his son, Allard – is known to have possessed twelve casts of various Van Bossuit ivories, executed in bronze by the founder Pieter van der Mij. Six were cast from works previously in Petronella’s possession, including the two high points of her collection, the Mars and the Venus with Anteros: ‘1 Venus with 1 Cupid who breaks his bow, very beautifully cast from the original by Francies that was very skilfully made from ivory, there being only 3 casts thereof in the world and 1 Mars as 1 counterpart [to the latter], very beautifully cast from the original by francies that was very skilfully made from ivory, there being only 3 casts thereof in the world’.²⁹²⁹1 Venusje met 1 Cupidootje dat sijn boogje breekt, seer fraay affgegooten over ‘t origineele van Francies dat van yvoor seer konstig was gemaakt, sijnde maar 3 gietsels van in de weereldt en 1 Mars tot 1 weedergaade, seer fraay affgegooten over het origineele van francies dat van yvoor seer konstig was gemaakt, sijnde maar 3 gietsels van in de wereldt, see T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, vol. 2, Leiden 1987, p. 464, no. 86. F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 37. Also, a bronze Venus by Van Bossuit was held in the collection of Mrs A.M. Ebeling (Amsterdam, 18-21 August 1817 (Lugt 9204). My thanks to Margreet van der Hut (written communication, 2 February 2017). Upon viewing sculptures in the cabinet of King Louis XIV in Paris in 1700, Pieter de la Court was immediately reminded of Van Bossuit’s Mars and a Hercules and Pallas: ‘the Hercules by Francis, others also on the same scale of the modelled Mars and Pallas’.³⁰³⁰de Hercules van Francis, andere ook tot de grootte van de geboutseerde Mars en Pallas, see T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, vol. 6a, Leiden 1992, pp. 370-71. One may deduce from this, that in addition to the bronze casts, there were also modelled versions of the Mars and other compositions by Van Bossuit: quite conceivably original wax modelli made for the ivories. In a painted self-portrait by Christoffel Wüst (1801-1853) from 1847, in which this Dordrecht painter appears together with his wife and son, a probable plaster cast of Van Bossuit’s ivory can be seen in the background, standing on a shelf in the artist’s workshop.³¹³¹G.J. Schweitzer, Catalogus schilderijen Dordrechts Museum: II 1700-1850, coll. cat. Dordrecht 1985, p. 92 (no. 106).

The ivory Mars was not derived from classical models, despite its unabashed nakedness and the highly rendered musculature. The sole classical echo comes from the famed marble Mars and Venus in the Louvre (in Van Bossuit’s day held in the Borghese collection in Rome).³²³²F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. p. 31 and fig. 14. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. MR 316; see A. Coliva et al., I Borghese e l’antico, exh. cat. Rome (Galleria Borghese) 2011-12, pp. 222-23 and no. 71. A more probable inspiration is the work of Artus Quellinus, which Van Bossuit encountered in Amsterdam, ³³³³F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43, esp. pp. 31, 32 and fig. 15. or Michel Anguier’s bronze Mars Giving up his Arms.³⁴³⁴G. Bresc-Bautier and G. Scherf (eds.), Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre)/New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)/Los Angeles (The J. Paul Getty Museum) 2008-09, no. 61.

Frits Scholten, 2025

Barent Graat and Mattys Pool, Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnyder Francis van Bossuit in yvoor gesneeden en geboetseert, Amsterdam 1727, pls. xlviii, xlix; C. Theuerkauff, ‘Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): “Beeldsnyder in yvoor”ʼ, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 37 (1975), pp. 119-82, esp. p. 178, no. 45; Jaarverslag, Amsterdam 1998 (annual report Rijksmuseum), pp. 36-37 F. Scholten, ‘Een ijvore Mars van Francis: De beeldsnijder Van Bossuit en de familie De la Court’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 26-43; F. Scholten, ‘Mars’, Bulletin van de Vereniging Rembrandt 9 (1999), no. 1, pp. 17-19; J. Kiers et al., The Glory of the Golden Age: Dutch Art of the 17th Century: Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Art, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, pp. 273, 319 (no. 184); J.P. Filedt-Kok et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1600-1700, coll. cat Amsterdam 2001, no. 103; E.D. Schmidt, Francis van Bossuit: The Third Dimension, sale cat. Munich (Julius Böhler)/New York (Blumka Gallery) 2014, pp. 12, 13, 28, 30, figs. 10, 11, 24; F. Scholten, ‘The Amsterdam Ivories of Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692): Reception and Transformation in the Eighteenth Century’, in C. van Eck (ed.), Idols and Museum Pieces: The Nature of Sculpture, its Historiography and Exhibition History, 1640-1880, Berlin/Boston/Paris 2017, pp. 35-47; Scholten in G.J.M. Weber (ed.), 1600-1700: Dutch Golden Age, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2018, no. 162

F. Scholten, 2025, 'Francis van Bossuit, Mars, Amsterdam, c. 1682 - 1692', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200412004