Modelled and fired. Coated with a finishing layer.

The right arm has broken off at the elbow, the left arm at the shoulder. Various minor points of damage.

…; from the dealer Sarluis, The Hague, fl. 10, through the mediation of Jonkheer Victor de Stuers, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-3092-A

This terracotta half-length portrays a Dutch military commander, whose identity remains uncertain. His physiognomic features somewhat resemble those of the renowned Dutch naval hero, Michiel de Ruyter. Without the arms, which have broken off, other attributes possibly confirming his identity – e.g. a military baton or escutcheon – have likely been lost. Certain is that the piece was originally modelled as a bozzetto (sketch model) for a life-size portrait to be executed in stone, possibly destined for a monumental tomb. With the sitter depicted half-length, rendered from below the waist up, the chosen form of martial portraiture is fairly uncommon in the Northern Netherlands. Bartholomeus Eggers’s marble portrait bust of Count Johan Maurits, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679) from 1664, today preserved at Siegen, is the most important work executed in this format.¹¹H.R. Hoetink et al., Zo wijd de wereld strekt, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1979, no. 33. In its pose and detailing, the present terracotta sketch – even if on a much smaller scale – displays clear similarities to this life-size portrait. Indeed, Eggers’s estate inventory of 1681 mentions een model van de Ruyter van poth erdt (a model of de Ruyter from clay).²²A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, vol. 2, The Hague 1916, p. 718. The purported resemblance of the present terracotta bozzetto to the person of De Ruyter, together with the presence of the order cross adorning the chest, is thought to confirm its interpretation as an unexecuted design for De Ruyter’s tomb monument, stylistically attributable to Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) versus Bartholomeus Eggers (1637-1692).

Nevertheless, this interpretation fails to address the broad, arched form of the base on which the figure rests – pointing more to a work created in the eighteenth century. More importantly, it clearly ignores the presence of the monogram J.F.M. on the figure’s socle, initials belonging to Johannes Fredericus (‘Jean-François’) Maes (1707-1759), a sculptor originating from Antwerp and active in The Hague in the mid-eighteenth century.³³K. Heyning, ‘Decoratief beeldhouwwerk in Den Haag tijdens het rococo’, in R. Baarsen et al., Rococo in Nederland, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, pp. 24-35, esp. pp. 29-32. After initially receiving his training as a sculptor in his father’s atelier, Maes moved to The Hague around 1740, where he became an apprentice to the sculptor Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742), a fellow Antwerp native. Following Xavery’s death, Maes established himself as an independent sculptor in The Hague. During the 1750s, he associated for some time with the sculptor and stone merchant Anthoni Wapperom. Besides decorative carving, Maes also worked on several tomb monuments. Most worthy of mention are the tombs of Pieter Mogge in Dreischor and Willem Maurits van Nassau-Lalecq in Ouderkerk aan den IJssel. The presence of Maes’s initials on the present bozzetto leaves little doubt regarding its attribution, a conclusion further confirmed by the half-length bust form, a type Xavery employed in several known cases, specifically his half-length bust portraits include those of Stadholder William IV (BK-1959-78), Johan van Welderen (BK-18304) and Don Luis da Cunha (BK-1994-3). As Xavery’s pupil, Maes was undoubtedly very familiar with this form of bust.

If indeed the monogram is that of Johannes Franciscus Maes, the present terracotta must be seen as a sketch model for an ultimately unexecuted, large-scale portrait of an unknown nobleman or military figure. Such a bust portrait was perhaps commissioned for the headquarters of an admiralty – in the case of De Ruyter, the Admiralty of Zeeland, his province of origin. Maes’s tomb monument for Pieter Mogge, the influential regent from Zierikzee, at Dreischor, does confirm a direct link between the sculptor and Zeeland. At the present time, however, no knowledge exists of an admiralty commission concerning a work of this nature.

Frits Scholten, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 320, with earlier literature; U. Becker, ‘Zur Entwicklung des Herrscherbildes im Spiegel niederländischer Porträtbüsten des 17. Jahrhunderts’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 54 (1993), pp. 163-203, esp. p. 198 and fig. 38; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 27

F. Scholten, 2025, 'attributed to Johannes Fredericus Maes, ? Vice-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676), The Hague, c. 1743 - c. 1759', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035764