This post updated 28 Jan. 2025 with images of the two allegorical terracotta reliefs at Cambridge University.
A Pair of Dutch Terracotta Busts.
by Ignatius van Logteren (1685 - 1732).
or Jan van Logteren (1709 - 45).
and a relief by Artus Quellinus (1609 - 68).
on a Cabinet in the Print Room of the British Museum.
Sometimes my quest for knowledge leads me into some remarkable places. A couple of years ago I bought with a partner, an excellent terracotta plaque believing it to be a relief by Rysbrack. Suffice to say that it wasn't by Rysbrack but by the 17th century sculptor Artus Quellinus from Antwerp and was a model for a large marble relief in Amsterdam Town Hall (now the Royal Palace).
Whilst researching this relief I came across reference in a monograph Artus Quellinus, Sculptor of Amsterdam by Frits Scholten of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, published by the Rijksmuseum, 2010, to a cabinet at the British Museum which was surmounted by another model of a marble relief from the huge project for Amsterdam Town Hall designed by van Campen and with the sculpture provided by Artus Quellinus and his assistants including Rombouts Verhulst.
I spoke with Hugo Chapman, the Simon Sainsbury Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, who very kindly agreed to allowing myself and Peter Hone to visit the department at the Museum and to take photographs of the relief on the cupboard there.
The fact that our relief was found in an English sale led me to believe that the two objects might possibly be related. Other pieces by Quellinus had been in English collections in the 18th century including a model for the pediment 'a basso relievo of a pediment of the Stadhouse' on the outside of the town hall, as well as reliefs of the planetary gods Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter and of the Judgement of Solomon. These had all been included in the sale of part of the collection of Michael Rysbrack in 1760.
The cabinet that the relief is mounted on is late 18th or early 19th century, a rather severe neo classical Dutch cupboard. It had arrived in the department of prints and drawing in 1847. It was used to contain a very fine collection of Dutch and Flemish prints, assembled by John Sheepshanks (1787 - 1863). A little further delving by Hugo Chapman revealed that it had been bought by the prints and drawing keeper WH Carpenter from Christies for £2 in 1847. Unfortunately there is no further information as to how it had arrived in England, but it is of a form which was quite common in the houses of wealthy Dutch merchants of the 18th century and used to store drawings and objects.
Further research brought to light the de Bosch family portraits depicted below and Frits Scholten of the Rijksmuseum found the little watercolour of Jan de Bosch with the relief of Arion on the wall and the relief on the pediment of the collectors cabinet behind him.
It is unknown when the two busts on the British Museum Cabinet were placed there - it is certainly possible that they came with the cabinet and had been added before it came to England. The form of the collectors cabinet was fairly common amongst the merchant classes of Amsterdam.
It is interesting to see that the form of the cabinet is different in each of the portraits but the common factor is the relief of the children with fishes and large grisailles by de Wit.
The conversation piece by Tibout Reghters shows two busts on a baroque cabinet but it is a different cabinet to the others and different busts to those at the British Museum.
Engraving of the marble overdoor to the 'Thesaurie Ordinaris' the Treasury in Amsterdam Town Hall - Stadthuis by Artus Quellinus -
very much in the manner of Duquesnoy.
This engraving is by his brother Hubertus Quellinus (1619 -87).
Marked with the Initials of Artus Quellinus and Hubertus Quellinus.
This is one of a detailed set of engravings depicting the finished scheme and details of the sculpture program at the town hall.
From 'Afbeelding van't Stadt Huys van Amsterdam' by Jacob van Campen, 1661.
For a quick overview and enlargement of the engravings of this publication see -
Amsterdam Town Hall - Stadthaus, now the Royal Palace.
Rijksmuseum.
The British Museum Relief by Artus Quellinus, a Model for the Overdoor for the 'Thesaurie Ordinaris' in the Stadthaus, Amsterdam.
Although fairly thickly overpainted - and it has been damaged in several place, it is still possible to see that this is a much more 'worked up' model than the sketch model in the Rijksmuseum above.
The Marble Overdoor to the 'Thesaurie Ordinaris'
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The Sheepshanks Cabinet in the British Museum.
For an excellent overview of the Town Hall architecture see The Palace of Amsterdam, Treasure wrought by chisel and brush.by Eymert-Jan Goosens pub. Wanders 2010.
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Sketch Portrait of Jeronimo de Bosch I and his Family (c. 1753 - 4).
by Tiebout Regters.
260 x 342 mm.
Showing a single bust on the pediment of the Collectors Cabinet.
Jeronimo I (Jeroen) (1677 - 1767) Apothecary and Inspector of the Medical College of Amsterdam from 1714, Bernardus de Bosch (1709 - 86), his wife Margaret Leuvening, Catherine van der Heyden wife of, Jeronimo de Bosch II, the poet (1711 - 79), Joannes (Jan) de Bosch (1713 - 85) with the portrait of his mother Judith Willink, Elizabeth de Bosch, Willem Schuyt, and Hendrik de Bosch.
Private Collection.
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Portrait of Jeronimo de Bosch and Family.
Signed and Dated T.Regters / pinxit 1754.
Amsterdam Museum.
Detail crop from the de Bosch family portrait by Tibout Regters.
Showing a pair of busts, the grisaille by de Wit and terracotta relief by Artus Quellinus on the Baroque Cabinet.
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Portrait of Jan de Bosch with his wife Margaretha Kroon (1741 - 1824).
by Adriaan de Lelie (1755 - 1820).
The BM Cabinet on the left side ofte picture.
Oil on Canvas c.1800.
530 x 620 mm.
Note the two busts - the marble bust on black socle which he seems to be very proud of, the van Logteren models on the mantelpiece and another bust of a bearded man on the floor in front of the collectors cabinet.
Private Collection.
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Johannes (Jan) de Bosch.
Watercolour, c.1780 - 90.
245 x 222 mm.
Private Collection.
An anonymous watercolour portrait of Jan de Bosch in his study with the collectors cabinet behind him formerly owned by his father Jeronimo de Bosch I. The cabinet is mounted with the model for the overdoor by Artus Quellinus now in the British Museum and with the Allegory of Painting by de Wit on the door (Amsterdam Museum.. Behind him to the left and mounted on the wall is a terracotta relief of the myth of the musician Arion being rescued from the pirates by a Dolphin. This relief is another model for a marble relief over a door to the Insurance chamber in the Amsterdam town Hall scheme.
Johannes (Jan) de Bosch was a painter, draughtsman and engraver, son of the Apothecary Jeronimo I de Bosch. He was an avid collector, He specialised in painting arcadian landscapes and topographical drawings. He also appears to have been a dealer and auctioneer. He had 11 terracottas by Ignatius van Logteren and two terracottas by Artus Quellinus in his collection, several models visible on the mantle shelf in the portrait of him and his wife by de Lelie (above).
An Allegory of Painting by Jacob de Wit,
Signed and Dated JD Wit F. 1750.
Oil on Panel.
Formerly on the collectors cabinet of Jeronimo de Bosch I and inherited by his son Jan de Bosch.
Amsterdam Museum.
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Another Complete Door Panel with an allegorical painting of a statue of painting
overall 169 x 76cms.
Image source unknown.
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The Two terracotta busts by Jan van Logteren on the Sheepshanks Cabinet at the British Museum.
There is a reference to 11 sculptures by the van Logterens once in the Johannes (Jan) de Bosch collection
pictured in the Regters family portait in :
Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum: 1700-1800 by HW van Os pub Rijksmuseum in 2006.
I am very grateful to Hugo Chapman of the British Museum, Prints and Drawings Department
for allowing me into his office and permitting me to take the following photographs.
Frits Scholten of the Rijksmuseum has also helped make compiling this page possible
and I am very grateful for his encouragement and assistance.
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Bust of Venus or Water by Jan van Logteren.
from Ignatius en Jan van Logteren by Fischer pub. 2005.
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The Mannington Hall Busts.
by Ignatius van Logteren.
There are three rather weathered busts stone or marble busts by Ignatius van Logeteren at Mannington Hall in Norfolk. There is a fourth bust but it is so badly weathered that I felt there was no point in including it.
For an account of the history of the Hall see -
Mannington and the Earls of Orford by Lady Dorothy Nevill
published by the Fine Art Society in 1894.
Within it is a photograph of the Garden at Mannington with indistinct and unidentifiable busts and statues on the terraces reproduced below.
Lady Dorothy Nevill suggests that the busts and statuary in the garden were placed there by her brother about 50 years ago, making that sometime in the 1840's. Whilst researching this statuary is beyond the present scope of this study - It might be worth a little delving into the archives.
If these pieces of statuary were all by van Logteren or one of his contemporaries it then suggests they came from a formal garden introduced by William and Mary in the late 17th century and removed during the boom in the less formal landscapes of Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton, when these formal gardens and their sculpture were swept away. Examples of this type of statuary in marble or Bentheim stone by Jan Peter van Baurscheit I (d. 1728), the van Logterens or their contemporaries turn up on the English Art market from time to time.
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The PMSA has a project to photograph public sculpture and I reproduce photographs of the busts at Mannington Hall.
Mannington Hall Venus or poss. Water
Ignatius van Logteren.
Inscribed IVL at the back.
This is a marble / stone version of the British Museum terracotta.
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The Mannington Hall, Cybele .
Ignatius van Logteren.
inscribed IVL.
727 mm tall
This was sold by Christie South Kensington Lot 315, 29 January 2013.
The Mannington Hall Medusa attrib. Ignatius van Logteren.
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I will be posting much further on the sculpture of Artus Quellinus I, and his brothers, the engraver Hubertus Quellinus and the painter and sometime assistant to Rubens Erasmus Quellinus in future pages but as a taster here are two terracottas by Artus Quellinus, versions of which were sold in the Michael Rysbrack sale in London in 1760.
Model for the Tympanum Amsterdam Town Hall by Artus Quellinus.
Amsterdam Museum.
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Judgement of Solomon.
Terracotta.
Artus Quellinus.
Photograph courtesy Amsterdam Museum.
For two bust of Bacchus by van Logteren see my posts -
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Two Allegorical Reliefs by Jan van Logteren.
at Cambridge University (no further information available at present)
The Allegory of Painting
H 62.8 x W 87 x D 12 cm
Images courtesy artuk website.
The Allegory of Sculpture.
