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22 Building the Church of the Vow (1840–43) A3 22 Building the Church of the Vow (1840–43) A3 B2 C2 D N 22 Church of the Vow 26 27 1 25 2 West wall (panel 26/31) 24 3 h. 2.3 × 2.19 m 4 23 Restored fractures on the vertical and horizontal edges Sculptor of the clay maquette: Peter Kirchhoff 22 5 Stages of production 21 A1 W.H. Coetzer, pencil drawing, retained only in A2 (April–June 1937) 6 A2 Reproduction of A1 (June 1937) 20 A3 W.H. Coetzer, revised pencil drawing A1, h. 13.4 × 15.4 cm 7 (after September 1937) 19 Annotations: ‘nog nie klaar’ (not yet finished) / ‘Bou van Gelofte Kerkie’ 8 18 (Building of the Church of the Vow) 17 9 B1 One-third-scale clay maquette, not extant but replicated in B2 (1942–43) 16 10 B2 One-third-scale plaster maquette, h. 77.2 × w. 76.2 × d. 8 cm (1942–43) 15 14 13 12 11 C1 Full-scale wooden armature, not extant (1943–46) C2 Full-scale clay relief, not extant but photographed; replicated in C3 0 5 10 m (1943–46) C3 Full-scale plaster relief (1943–46), not extant but illustrated in undated newspaper, UP Art Archives, Moerdyk files (shortly after 4 June 1948); copied in D (1948–49) D Marble as installed in the Monument (1949) Early records SVK minutes (4.9.1937) ― item 4r (see below, ‘Developing the design’) Voorstelle (5.12.1934?) ― item 19 ‘Pietermaritzburg. Geloftekerkie. Volksraadsitting, of die aanvang van boerdery: watervore, manne op die land besig met saai ens.’ (Pietermaritzburg. Church of the Vow. A sitting of the volks- raad, or the beginning of farming: canals, men busy on the land with sowing, etc.) Panele (1934–36) ― item 14 ‘Boere bring permanente beskawing’ (Boers bring permanent civilisation), b. ‘stigting v. ’n dorp b.v. P.M.Burg of Pot’stroom’ (the establishment of a town, for example, Pietermaritzburg or Potchef- stroom) Wenke (c. Dec. 1934–36) ― item II. Dr. L. Steenkamp, mnre. A.J. du Plessis en M. Basson, ‘A. MAATSKAPLIK’ (Social), 1. ‘Godsdienstig’ (Religious), d. ‘Volvoering van die Gelofte; inwyding van die eerste kerkgebou’ (Fulfilment of the Vow; dedication of the first church building) Moerdyk Layout (5.10.1936–15.1.1937) ― scene 19 on panel 25/31 ‘Kerk en P.M.B’ (Church and Pietermaritzburg) Jansen Memorandum (19.1.1937) ― item 7.19 ‘Erection of “Geloftekerk” and founding of Pietermaritzburg’ Open Access. © 2020 Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider, published by De Gruyter and African Minds. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110668797-027 464 22 Church of the Vow Figure 22.1: D. Church of the Vow. 1949. Marble, 2.3 × 2.19 m (courtesy of VTM; photo Russell Scott) Description 465 Description The scene depicts a building site (fig. 22.1). The all-encompassing backdrop is the façade of an almost complete edifice, based on what since 1912 was the Voortrekker Museum, and generally believed to have formerly been the Church of the Vow. Two Voortrekkers stand facing each other, one on either side of the foreground, while a third kneels between them. The dominant figure is the older clean-shaven Boer on the left. The model was the architect of the Monument, Gerard Moerdyk, tall, upright and evidently in charge, holding a short hammer in his right hand and a large set square in his left. Unusually for the frieze, he is shown in his shirt sleeves, as are the other figures except the young man on the right, who wears a jacket. He holds a spool of leather riempie, used for measuring, to assist the bearded Boer in the middle. This man kneels to hammer a large peg into the ground with the end of the riempie attached. We can deduce that they are surveyors, laying out the new town. Behind the group two builders are depicted, overly diminutive in scale, standing on top of rustic scaffolding made of branches. The middle figure in a brimmed hat, who seems to lack a left arm, is finishing off the plasterwork above the door of the building, while the other refines the moulded volute of the gable. The Cape Dutch gable of the concavo-convex holbol type is cut off at the top of the panel, but the lower volutes supported on horizontal mouldings are visible on either side. An oddly curtailed three-quarter view, squeezed in on the right, shows that there is a second gable at the back, with some high scaffolding, implying that it too has to be completed. 466 22 Church of the Vow Figure 22.2: A2. W.H. Coetzer. Reproduction of first sketch for Figure 22.3: A3. W.H. Coetzer. ‘Bou van Gelofte Kerkie’. After Church of the Vow. June 1937 (courtesy of ARCA PV94 1/75/5/1; September 1937. Pencil, 13.4 × 15.4 cm. Revised first sketch photo the authors) (photo courtesy of Museum Africa, no. 66/2194G) Figure 22.4: B2. Peter Kirchhoff. Church of the Vow. 1942–43. Plaster, 77.2 × 76.2 × 8 cm. Maquette (courtesy of VTM Museum VTM 2184/1–28; photo Russell Scott) Developing the design 467 Developing the design The reproduction of Coetzer’s initial sketch (fig. 22.2) and the final drawing (fig. 22.3) seem, as is the case with Blood River, to be one and the same. Five trekkers, most with rolled-up sleeves, are either busy building an edifice or, as we can infer, laying out the street grid of Pietermaritzburg. Nothing in the scene itself portends that the structure is a church. Seen in three-quarter view, the building recedes into the background. The nearer short end, its upper section cut off, is obscured by scaffolding and figures, but the long side has five rectangular windows and, beyond its thatched roof, an overlarge holbol-type gable with mouldings on the other end can be seen: the gable form corresponds to that of Pietermaritzburg’s Voortrekker Museum as inaugurated in 1912 (fig. 22.21). A trekker in three-quarter back view advances from the right with a big bundle of thatching grass on his back, while another, much smaller in scale, attends to the roof, perched on a rustic ladder. On the left two Boers, both with beards and brimmed hats, are surveying the ground. The further figure holds a spool with a measuring line, while the other, the only one with a jacket, crouches down to pick up the loose end of the line that runs along a shallow trench, parallel to the long side of the church (facing Church Street). Another trekker kneels at the near end of the trench to hammer in a long surveyor’s peg. Coetzer included a fair amount of everyday detail, such as the heap of sand with spade, bucket and spirit level beneath the first window of the church, and he filled in the space beyond the gable with decorative foliage, reminiscent of trees in Pierneef’s paintings. At the Historiese Komitee meeting on 4 September 1937 the following alterations were required: The Church of the Vow. The measurement of Pietermaritzburg must be a separate activity a bit removed from the church; the form of the gable was different (consult Mr Basson,1011 Pietermaritz- burg); the ladder must be better made; the spirit level must be removed and replaced with a plumb line.1012 Coetzer’s pencil drawing (fig. 22.3), again annotated as unfinished, has not responded to the com- mittee’s comments, as it still has a spirit level, a rustic ladder and the laying out of Pietermaritzburg in the foreground. When Peter Kirchhoff started to work on the small plaster maquette (fig. 22.4), he made some adjustments that seem to respond to aspects of the criticisms, perhaps passed on to him by Moerdyk, but he too integrates the two scenes of surveying the town and building the church. He rearranged the composition in a way that excludes room for informal details such as the tree, ladder and tools. Now two features dominate the scene, the gabled façade of the 1912 Voor- trekker Museum which fills almost the entire background, and the figure in the left foreground, upright, clean-shaven and in three-quarter view, who stands holding a long set square. In front of him are two bearded workers. The one kneeling at the tall man’s feet is posed more naturally than in Coetzer’s drawing, as he knocks a smaller stake into the ground with a now very small hammer. The thick measuring line attached to the stake, possibly made of leather, comes from the spool held by the second man. He has been brought to the front and leans forward to assist, part of his lower left leg and foot curiously cut off by the edge of the panel. All are in shirt sleeves to signal their role as workers. The façade in the maquette has a clearly defined plinth, a rectangular door and a holbol-type gable, again cut off at the top, and with a contour and spiral volute very like the one drawn by Coetzer, but questioned by the Historiese Komitee. Quite unlike the picturesque perspective of 1011 Martin Johannes Adriaan Basson was appointed in October 1934 as new honorary secretary of Pietermaritzburg’s Voortrekker Museum; he stated that the ‘museum strictly adheres to the collection of relics originally belonging to the Voortrekkers or appertaining to that period insofar as the antiquities stand in some relation with the Voortrekkers’ (Guest 2012, 40). 1012 ‘Die Geloftekerkie.
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