watermark: unidentified

…; sale, F. Muller (Amsterdam), no. 1346;¹¹C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), p. 121. …; ? acquired by the museum (L. 2228), in or after 1921;²²According to L. 2228. first recorded in the museum in 1973³³Recorded in the RMA inventory book of ‘uninventoried drawings’.

Object number: RP-T-00-232(R)

Thanks to the letter on the verso of this drawing we know that it is a design for a painting of a caricature of the Synod of Dordrecht (1618). From the text it emerges that the poet-humanist Peter Schryver (Petrus Scriverius, 1576-1660) was the patron and deviser of this allegory. In the letter, Saftleven explained to Schrijver in detail who is portrayed. The calf's head on the wall is John Calvin (1509-1564), and the cock, the cat and the seven owls represent prominent political figures, a professor, and a bailiff from that time. Whether this painting was ever executed is not known.¹¹¹¹C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), p. 123.

It is improbable that the date on the letter is correct, as Saftleven would have received this commission at the age of thirteen or fourteen. Scriverius most likely did not engage such a young artist – whose earliest dated paintings are from 1629 – to invent such a political allegory. Moreover, this lively and securely drawn sheet does not give the impression of being a youthful work. Schulz suggested that it was a slip of the pen and dated the sheet, on stylistic grounds, to the 1640s.¹²¹²W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, p. 78.

While Saftleven painted countless animal allegories throughout the years, there are fewer drawings with allegorical subject-matter. An undated chalk drawing with watercolour, whose iconography is related to that of the Rijksmuseum sheet, is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (inv. no. 86.GG.17).¹³¹³G.R. Goldner et al., European Drawings, II: Catalogue of the Collections, coll. cat. Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 1992, p. 248, under no. 106; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, p. 147, no. 353. Also related are two drawings at the Rijksmuseum featuring a Cat Concert (inv. no. RP-T-00-347](/en/collection/RP-T-00-347/catalogue-entry) and a Bird Concert (inv. no. RP-T-00-348, both thought to be copies after drawings by Saftleven.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2001/Carolyn Mensing, 2020

F. Muller, De Nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van Nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, 4 vols., Amsterdam 1863-82, I (1863), no. 1346, IV (1882), no. 1346; C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), p. 123; A.M. Hind, Catalogue of Drawings by Dutch and Flemish Artists Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 5 vols., coll. cat. London 1915-32, IV (1931), p. 47; E. Wiersum, ‘Cornelis Saftleven, geboren te Gorcum in 1607, overleden te Rotterdam in 1681’, Rotterdamsch Jaarboekje 9 (1931), p. 90; M.D. Haga, Diertekeningen door de eeuwen heen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1968, no. 38; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 45, 78, 126, no. 26 (with different dimensions); H.-J. Raupp, '"Trucidata Innocentia”: Die Verurteilung des Oldenbarnevelt bei Joost van den Vondel un Cornelis Saftleven', in H. Vekeman, Wort und Bild in der niederländischen Kunst und Literatur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Erfstadt 1984, pp. 209-19; S. Groenveld and H.L.Ph. Leeuwenberg, De bruid in de schuit. De consolidatie van de Republiek, 1609-1650, Zutphen 1985 (De Tachtigjarige oorlog, vol. 2), p. 204 (ill.); T. G. Kootte, Rekkelijk of precies. Remonstranten en contraremonstranten ten tijde van Maurits en Oldenbarnevelt, exh. cat. Utrecht (Het Catharijneconvent) 1994, p. 25 (fig.17), no. 133; J. Rutgers and M. Rijnders (eds.), Rembrandt in perspectief. De veranderende visie op de meester en zijn werk, Zwolle 2014, p. 206, fig. 7.8; I. Wolf, ‘From Fox to Donkey: A Hidden Political Satire on Oliver Cromwell by Cornelis Saftleven’, Oud Holland 132 (2019), no. 2/3, p. 89, fig. 2; https://rkd.nl/images/104504

G. Wuestman, 2001/C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, _, Northern Netherlands, c. 1640 - c. 1649', in J. Turner (ed.), _Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143953