2 the rijks reconstruction of the cuypersmuseum floor in the entrance hall bulletin

Francesco Righetti and Henry Hope: The Welgelegen Lead Statues

For Henk Rottinghuis *

• frits scholten •

ntil 2005 seven large grey statues Detail of fig. 3 poetry, the young androgynous god U stood in the park surrounding Apollo (Apollino), Cupid, the little the eighteenth-century Welgelegen god of love, stringing his bow, the Pavilion in Haarlem, now the offices youth Ganymede with the Greek of the Province of North Holland supreme deity Zeus in the guise of (fig. 1). Intriguingly, they were made an eagle beside him, the classical god of lead, not the stone or bronze one of wine Bacchus embracing the satyr would expect. As they approached Ampelos, and lastly Mercury, the god the monumental façade of the great of trade, balancing on the tips of his Neoclassical house, visitors to toes (figs. 3-8). With the exception Welgelegen before 2005 came face to of the Laocoön, they are the work face with a lead version of the Laocoön, of Francesco Righetti (1749-1819), a one of the most famous sculptures of caster of statues in Rome who was Classical Antiquity (fig. 2). Dotted renowned in his day.1 around in the enclosed garden behind In 2007 the provincial authorities Fig. 1 Welgelegen, they would have found Welgelegen front officially transferred the seven statues the other six statues: a seated Euterpe, elevation (after to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam the muse of flute-playing and lyrical restoration in 2009). because their condition was visibly

3 the rijksmuseum bulletin

4 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Fig. 3 francesco righetti, Euterpe, 1781. Lead, h. 140 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. bk-2006-11.

Fig. 4 francesco righetti, Apollino, 1781. Lead, h. 148 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. bk-2006-10.

Fig. 5 francesco Fig. 2 righetti, Laocoön, Rome, Amor Stringing his c. 1699. Bow, 1781. Lead, h. 224 cm. Lead, h. 133 cm. Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. bk-2006-13. inv. no. bk-2006-9.

5 the rijksmuseum bulletin

Fig. 6 deteriorating in the open air. To in the Amsterdam merchant bank francesco do nothing would have meant the Hope & Co since 1762 (fig. 9). The righetti, irretrievable loss of the exceptional firm already had a respectable history Ganymede and statues, one of the very rare surviving by then; originally established in the Eagle, 1802. ensembles of monumental lead Scotland, England and France, it had Lead, h. 135 cm. 2 Amsterdam, statuary in Europe. Exact copies opened a branch in the Republic in 5 Rijksmuseum, were made in bronze, a material better the mid-seventeenth century. After inv. no. bk-2006-7. able to withstand the rigours of the a thorough grounding in a firm in Dutch climate, to fill the seven empty London, Henry developed into a Fig. 7 plinths left in Haarlem.3 The original successful general merchant with an francesco lead statues were restored in 2010,4 extensive list of clients and a wide righetti, and are now on display in one of range of goods in his portfolio. His Bacchus and Ampelos, 1781/82. the most prominent positions in the trade relations extended throughout Lead, h. 187 cm. Rijksmuseum – the large atrium – Europe, the Middle East and North Amsterdam, where they welcome hundreds of and South America. In 1802 a contem- Rijksmuseum, visitors every day. porary painted a picture of Hope as inv. no. bk-2006-8. kind and congenial man who did not A Merchant Prince put on airs: ‘He is one of the very rare in the Haarlemmerhout exceptions of being spoken well of by Welgelegen was built between 1786 everybody and deserving it...’6 He was and 1789 as a country seat by the also described as a merchant prince, Anglo-Dutch banker Henry Hope who coupled his commercial talents (1735-1811), who had been a partner with highly refined taste and a love

6 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Fig. 8 Fig. 9 francesco charles howard righetti after hodges after giambologna joshua reynolds, (model), Flying Henry Hope, 1788. Mercury, 1781/82. Mezzotint, Lead, h. 210 cm. 405 x 288 mm. Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. inv. no. bk-2006-12. rp-p-1883-a-7533.

of the arts. This side of Henry Hope was very much in evidence in his art collec­- tion and in the building and furnishing of his country house, Welgelegen, on the edge of the Haarlemmerhout – the woods outside Haarlem (see fig. 1).

Welgelegen, a Temple of Art Seven years after he joined the family business, Hope bought the old manor house of Welgelegen (which literally means well-situated) and its land on the outskirts of Haarlem.7 Between 1770 and 1785 he extended his Haarlem holdings to include an adjacent, very considerable estate with a view of the Haarlemmerhout, so that the simple manor house now really lived up to its name. In 1785 Hope decided to demolish the old manor house and build a modern, tasteful country house in its stead. He had the avenues and paths of the Haarlemmerhout

7 the rijksmuseum bulletin repos­itioned and commissioned architecture that had come into the German landscape gardener fashion throughout Europe in the Johann Georg Michael (1738-1800) eighteenth century. The elegant to transform part of the ancient building was intended above all to woodland into a park in the English underpin its owner’s prestige and landscape style. This would give his house his extensive art collection, magnificent new mansion a long, for which three large galleries were gradually widening and stylish carriage built on the principal floor. Their drive in the sightline of the building presence gave Welgelegen a character and an appropriate ‘front garden’.8 at odds with the prevailing Dutch The new Welgelegen, which was architecture, an air of foreignness eventually completed around 1790, that was reinforced by the input of was built in a modern style with a the international artists and designers foreign grandeur perfectly in keeping Hope employed. Italian craftsmen with its owner and his art collection. made the numerous stucco ornaments The house was one of the earliest and carried out the scagliola work, and most convincing examples of usually working to models in French Neoclassicism in Netherlandish and Italian prints. A marble mantel- architecture, designed by the Amster- piece that was designed around dam city architect Abraham van der 1760 by the famous Italian Giovanni Hart (1747-1820) with the assistance Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) for of Hope himself.9 The front elevation ‘Cavaliere Giovanni Hope’, Henry’s was and is dominated by a tall pillared cousin John, was installed in Wel­ portico like a Roman temple, flanked gelegen by John more than twenty to left and right by lower wings with years later (fig. 10). It is now also in corner pavilions, echoing the palace the Rijksmuseum.10

Fig. 10 giovanni battista piranesi (design), Mantelpiece made for John Hope originating from Welgelegen, c. 1769. Marble, h. 133 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. bk-15449; on loan from the Province of North- Holland.

8 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Fig. 11 Righetti’s signature (detail of fig. 3).

Although Hope’s art collection Righetti the Bronze-Founder consisted predominantly of first- Reproducing statues in Italy had class paintings, sculpture was given become increasingly popular in the a prominent place in and around eighteenth century and Righetti was Welgelegen. The magnificent façade by no means the only one to engage in was adorned in 1789 with appropriate this branch of sculpture. The practice sculptures by the Neoclassical of copying famous classical statues had sculptor Gilles-Lambert Godecharle begun in the Renaissance, of course, (1750-1835). However Hope also but in Hope’s day the demand for such owned statuary that stood more replicas had grown very considerably. freely in the natural surroundings This was due in part to the sky-high of Welgelegen, independent of the prices for original antiquities, and in architecture, forming a link between part to the tourists who flooded to the temple of art and its rural environ- Italy from all over Europe every year, ment. There were thirteen large lead with the English in the forefront. As statues, most of them cast from the cradle of European culture, the famous works of Classical Antiquity. country attracted countless wealthy Hope had ordered twelve of them young men who went on their Grand from the renowned statuary founder Tour – the educational rite of passage, Francesco Righetti in Rome in 1781. almost mandatory for the upper Four works from this suite were classes – to see the wonders of art and disposed of at the end of 1803 or culture that Italy had to offer. Under- slightly later because they were in such taking a Grand Tour was apparently poor condition. One has been missing not unusual in the Hope family either. without trace since 1920; another Henry’s cousin John was not in found its way into the garden of the Amsterdam in 1762, when the firm of Drents Museum in Assen. The other Hope & Co was established, because seven withstood the ravages of time he was ‘now on his travels’.11 We in the gardens of Welgelegen reason- cannot say for sure that Henry also ably well, eventually ending up in the went on a Grand Tour, but it certainly Rijksmuseum in 2007. The sculptor cannot be ruled out. In October 1760, signed his name in block letters cast the French philosopher Voltaire wrote into the pedestals of six of the seven to the Marquess Albergati Capacelli lead statues: franciscus righetti in Bologna that ‘a gentleman named fecit romae followed by the year of Mr Hope, half English, half Dutch, and manufacture (1781, 1782 and in one very rich,’ wanted to travel through Italy case 1802) (fig. 11). and Greece.12 Given the description

9 the rijksmuseum bulletin

Fig. 12 luigi valadier, Satyr, c. 1700. Bronze and alabastro fiorito, h. 58 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. bk-16945.

‘half English, half Dutch’, this could statues in Rome. There were several very well have been Henry Hope, who foundries in the city, supplying copies would then have been about the right in various materials, sizes and price age for such a cultural trip and had brackets. The goldsmith and statuary arrived in Amsterdam from England caster Luigi Valadier (1726-1785) not long before. produced high quality, very carefully Many foreign travellers bought finished replicas in bronze (fig. 12). expensive souvenirs to take home Francesco Righetti learnt the trade with them, small or sometimes even from him and, after Valadier’s death in life-sized copies of the most famous 1785, took over his leading role in the

10 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Roman art trade.13 At the same time, from the Dutch Republic laid the basis however, Righetti had to contend with for his later successes. It is striking formidable competition from, among that Righetti attracted the attention others, Giovanni Zoffoli (c. 1746-1805) of important clients very soon after and the rather shadowy figure in art this. In 1786, for instance, Catherine history, Giuseppe Boschi, who offered the Great of Russia commissioned a statues more cheaply (fig. 13).14 As well marble copy of Mount Parnassus with as these excellent copies in bronze, Apollo and the Muses,17 and from 1788 countless small copies of classical onwards there were various deliveries statues in alabaster, biscuit porcelain, of statues to the Swedish court.18 earthenware or plaster were made in Righetti also enjoyed the patronage Fig. 13 Rome, Naples and Florence, most of of the Vatican. In 1801 he was even attributed to them eventually finding their way on honoured with a papal visit. On this giovanni zoffoli, to the mantelpieces or tables of well-­ occasion Pope Pius vii commissioned a Two Centaurs, c. 1755. to-do Britons.15 set of ormolu altar decorations as a gift Bronze, marble, When Hope placed his first order for San Giorgio in Venice. Four years h. 47.5 and 44 cm. Amsterdam, with Righetti, the bronze-founder was later the same pope appointed him 16 Rijksmuseum, at the start of his career, and it seems director of the Vatican bronze foundry. inv. no. bk-1955-17a, b. very likely that this major commission The Bonapartes also contributed

11 the rijksmuseum bulletin

12 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Fig. 14 largely to his order book. Righetti Hope’s Commission Francesco Righetti’s supplied two miniature obelisks on the The long list of all the bronze statues printed price list. occasion of the marriage of Napoleon’s in his range is followed by a lengthy London, Victoria sister Pauline to Camillo Borghese postscript, in which Righetti informed and Albert Museum, in 1803; five years later he cast the potential clients of other services inv. no. d. 1479-1898. monumental bronze statue of Napoleon his workshop could provide, such as from a model by Antonio Canova on making casts of animal statues in the the instructions of Prince Eugène de Vatican collection, supplying pedestals Beauharnais, Bonaparte’s stepson for his statues in various types of marble and viceroy of Italy.19 The crowning or gilded bronze ‘perfectly imitating moment in his celebrated career the finest French gilding’ and, lastly, was a commission for the court in making copies actual size. He supplied Naples. In the last year of his life, 1819, such casts ‘en grandeur naturelle’ in Righetti completed a monumental three price ranges, depending on the bronze equestrian statue of Charles iii, size. For the smallest – the Apollino again after a model by Canova. It was size up to about 140 centimetres Righetti’s most ambitious and daring tall – he charged 400 Roman zecchini undertaking. After his death his work­- or ducats, for the middle category shop was continued by his son Luigi (approximately 150 centimetres), and his grandson Francesco Junior. the price was 550 zecchini, and the Both Righetti and his competitor largest statues, the size of the Apollo Zoffoli issued printed price lists, from Belvedere (225 centimetres tall), which it is clear that Righetti had by cost 1,300 zecchini. Righetti’s small far the larger range (fig. 14).20 Righetti’s bronzes (with prices ranging from dates from 1794 and was published in fifteen to fifty zecchini) were extremely French for the convenience of his popular, but his large sizes were much international clientele. There are nigh slower to sell – in fact everything on eighty statues on the list, as well as seems to suggest that when he ordered twenty-five statuary groups, forty-six the first of his set of lead replicas for busts and a miscellany of vases, tripods Welgelegen in 1781, Henry Hope was and other decorative bronzes. Zoffoli Righetti’s first (and possibly even offered only about a third as many.21 his only) customer for this category Righetti’s price list was aimed ‘aux of life-sized copies. This makes the amateurs de l’antiquité et des beaux surviving set of seven statues even arts’ and his range precisely reflects more important – and in an inter­ the tastes of his target group. While national context too. the lion’s share of the reproductions Going by the prices on Righetti’s were of statues of Classical Antiquity list, the total commission for twelve that could be seen in Rome at that statues must have cost Hope a fortune. time – he scrupulously recorded which As we have seen, a statue the size of collections they were in – he also the Apollino, which was also in Hope’s offered casts of a few sixteenth- and order, cost 400 zecchini in 1794, seventeenth-century statues, among although it is not clear from the price them Giambologna’s Flying Mercury in list whether Righetti’s prices were the Villa Medici and Bernini’s famous based on reproductions in bronze marble David in the Villa Borghese. or lead. Lead would have been Evidently the fame of these works considerably cheaper and also easier was undiminished at the end of the to cast because of its lower melting eighteenth century, although it is point. Even if we assume that versions equally remarkable that not a single in lead only cost about half as much work by a sculptor like Michelangelo as bronzes, Hope’s total order would appears on Righetti’s list. easily have come to 5,000 zecchini,

13 the rijksmuseum bulletin

not including the cost of transporting Giambologna’s Flying Mercury was the works. This amounts to more than one of the best-known images of 26,000 guilders at that time.22 post-classical Western art and a model of light-footed elegance but, equally The Selection as important, it was an allusion to Given the size of this investment, the Hope’s profession as a merchant selection Hope made from Righetti’s banker (see fig. 8). The lead Mercury range would not have been motivated was originally installed in the hall by the different prices. He ordered a on the ground floor and was the last diverse ensemble that included both of the statues to remain indoors. At classical and later works, probably with some time between 1890 and 1919 it a specific spot in mind or with a particu-­ was moved first to the steps and then Fig. 15 larly appropriate significance. Hope eventually to a position in the gardens françois du initially ordered the statues for an behind the house. quesnoy, octagonal room on the ground floor at The fact that Hope ordered a copy Susanna, 1629-33. Welgelegen, but he must have changed of François du Quesnoy’s Susanna Marble, h. approx. his plans quite quickly and instead had (now lost) is equally unsurprising. 200 cm. some of them erected outside. Accord- The marble original in Santa Maria Rome, Santa Maria di Loreto. ing to the inventories of Welgelegen di Loreto in Rome had been regarded Photo: © 2012 compiled between 1809 and 1888, only as the epitome of pure classicism since Scala, Florence. five statues in the group were indoors.23 it was made in 1633 (fig. 15). In the Low Countries, where Du Quesnoy (1597-1643) was born, the sculptor remained very popular throughout the eighteenth century. Susanna represented the modern classicist ideal and was often contrasted with classical statues.24 In a letter written from England in 1803, Hope himself expressed concern about the poor condition of a number of statues and was particularly distressed about the fate of the Susanna.25 In Hope’s day the Venus de’Medici was still accounted one of the finest statues of Antiquity (fig. 16). He may originally have ordered his now lost copy from Righetti as a pendant to the Apollino, the lead cast of which has survived (see fig. 4). The two statues were often paired since the original marbles belonging to the Medici were displayed as a pair in the Tribune of the Uffizi in Florence. Henry’s great-nephew, Thomas Hope, had full-sized marble replicas of the Venus and the Apollino together in the sculpture gallery at his country seat, The Deepdene in Surrey.26 It did not happen at Welgelegen, though, for there the Apollino was combined with Amor Stringing his Bow (see fig. 5) and

14 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall placed in the hall of the house, beside the Flying Mercury. The Venus was quite quickly relegated to the gardens. It would, incidentally, have been highly unlikely that Righetti made his copy directly from the original statue of Venus. It had become virtually impossible to make moulds from the statue since it had been damaged by Massimiliano Soldani in the early eighteenth century while he was casting from it.27 Righetti’s version for Hope was probably cast from an Fig. 16 existing copy. Venus Medici, Greece, Amor Stringing his Bow, taken first century bc. from the original marble in the Musei Marble, h. 153 cm. Capitolini, struck a light-hearted note Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi. among the other, more serious classics Photo: © 2012 Scala, (see fig. 5). Thematically it is a good Florence – Courtesy fit for the group of the Crouching of the Ministero Venus with Amor, in which the little Beni e Att. Culturali. love god offers his mother an arrow (fig. 17). Both statues are relatively other things, Cavaceppi added the right small and would be ideal for display lower arm with the flute, the attribute indoors, but this combination is not that transformed the anonymous seated confirmed by the Welgelegen inven­ woman into the muse of flute-playing. tories. In 1809, as we have seen, the This undoubtedly made the statue much Amor Stringing his Bow was set up in more saleable. the hall, opposite Ganymede and the Hope probably conceived of the two Eagle (see fig. 6). However, Hope groups, Ganymede and the Eagle and did not receive this last statue until Bacchus and Ampelos (see figs. 6 and 7) 1802, so it is conceivable that the 1791 as a pair, although he never saw them Crouching Venus with Amor was the together. The Ganymede group was counterpart to Amor Stringing his Bow certainly ordered in 1781, but it did until then. not arrive in Haarlem for another Hope’s selection of the seated Euterpe (see fig. 3) confirmed that his Welgelegen would be an extraordinary temple of art, where music and poetry would play a role alongside fine art and architecture. Interestingly, in Hope’s day the original marble Euterpe was no longer in Rome at all, it was at Newby Hall in England. Righetti’s price list of Fig. 17 1794 records the statue as ‘seated Muse francesco in England’. This means that he must righetti, have made the cast from an old mould Crouching Venus or after an old cast that had remained with Amor, 1781. Lead, h. 85.5 cm. in Italy – perhaps with the sculptor Assen, Drents Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, who had Museum, inv. no. radically overhauled the antique statue h 1961-38. Photo: before it was sold to England. Among Carien Steenbergen.

15 the rijksmuseum bulletin twenty-one years. The delay came Hope’s liking for the group may have about because the original statue was been prompted by the fact that the only excavated in 1780 and still had to subject was associated with friendship be restored. It was probably years later and harmony. before Righetti was granted permission to take a cast of it. The group depicts The Laocoön Ganymede offering a bowl of wine to In 1789 the largest of Hope’s lead Zeus, in the guise of an eagle, a refer­- statues, the Laocoön, was installed on ence to the fact that the youth would be the forecourt of Welgelegen between abducted by the bird of prey and carried the two curving flights of steps, as can off to Mount Olympus to serve as cup- be seen in an engraving of that year bearer to the gods. Bacchus and Ampelos (fig. 18). This prominent position was had been known since the late sixteenth justified as much by the reputation of century, when the Florentine sculptor the statue as by its size. The original Giovanni Caccini was commissioned group was excavated in Rome on by the Medici to restore the statue. All 14 January 1506 and immediately he had to work from was an antique recognized as a famous statue from Roman torso, which he completed as Antiquity that had been praised by Bacchus; he then added the young satyr Pliny as a depiction of the Trojan high Ampelos, whom the wine god loved. priest Laocoön and his two sons in When Ampelos died in a tragic accident, their life and death struggle with two Bacchus changed him into a vine and enormous sea serpents. The marble made wine from his blood. The wine statue was bought by Pope Julius ii cup in Ampelos’s hand refers to this and installed in the Belvedere statue and is also the motif that that links this court at the Vatican, where it remains group to Ganymede and the eagle. to this day. The other three statues that Although the lead Laocoön is not Righetti supplied for Welgelegen listed on the order to Righetti in have sadly been lost. We do, though, 1781 and the statue does not bear the know what they were from the order founder’s signature, it has until now Hope placed in 1781 and we can infer been regarded as a work by Righetti. from it that they were also part of The provenance of the group, how- the classical canon. There was, for ever, makes it clear that this is not the instance, a cast of the marble Antinous case. Hope did not acquire the Laocoön in the Musei Capitolini, the standing until Welgelegen was completed, as nude youth who was the favourite of a passage in the Algemeene Konst- en Emperor Hadrian. It is conceivable Letterbode of 1 January 1790 reveals: that Hope combined the elegant ‘Since last summer a cast or copy in statue with another nude youth, the lead of this extremely fine group has bronze Idolino, which was erroneously adorned the forecourt of Mr Hope’s described as Bacco dei Medici in magnificent country house just outside the 1781 order.28 The final item in this town (Haarlem). If we have been Hope’s order is a cast of the statuary correctly informed, the late lover of group which was known at that art and antiquities, Mr N. Kalf of West time as Papirius and his Mother and Zaandam, was the owner of this fine owned by the Ludovisi family in and costly piece in earlier years; being Rome. Righetti must have gone to in Rome, he bought it there and had it a great deal of trouble to get a cast shipped to his Manor of Polanen, near of this work, because until 1816 the Halfweg. After him Mr Braamkamp Ludovisis categorically refused of Amsterdam purchased this group. permission for anyone to make copies Considerable sums of money were of the statues in their collection.29 paid for it each time.’30

16 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

‘The late lover of art and antiquities, gentle mockery and some exaggeration Mr N. Kalf of West Zaandam,’ is Aldous Huxley referred to them in undoubtedly the wealthy Mennonite, his description of the Zaan region: Nicolaas Calff (1677-1734). This ‘The houses are small, made of wood colour­ful and successful merchant and gaudily painted; with gardens was among the friends of Tsar Peter as large as table-cloths, beautifully the Great when he was staying in kept and filled – at any rate at the Zaandam.31 Undeterred by his season when I saw them – with plushy Mennonite background, Calff adopted begonias. In one, as large, in this case, a lordly lifestyle; according to Diderot, as two table-cloths, were no less than when he was staying in Paris in 1713-14 fourteen large groups of statuary.’33 he even styled himself Comte de Veau From 1698 to 1700 Calff went on a (‘Count Calf’) or the Marquis des Grand Tour of England, France and Vaux. Calff built his country house, Italy, avidly collecting art and buying Polanen, between Amsterdam and statues for his country house. If the Haarlem, and laid out a sculpture report in the Algemeene Konst- en garden that was known far and wide: Letterbode is to be trusted, Calff must ‘… which stood where the summer have ordered the Laocoön during his residence of a certain Mr Calf was stay in Rome, in or shortly before 1700 formerly seen. In former times this and well before Righetti started his Fig. 18 latter place, which was also called business. j.l. van beek Polanen, was famed for a great many After his death, Polanen passed to after d. kerkhoff, fine and expensive casts of antiques his nephew Pieter Jansz Calff. On 3 and Welgelegen, 1789. that the then owner, Klaas or Nicolaas 4 June 1763, Nicolaas Calff’s estate was Engraving, Calf, born in West Zaandam, had had sold and the Laocoön was acquired by 161 x 298 mm. made on his travels in Italy, where he the celebrated Amsterdam art collector Haarlem, Noord- was known as the Marquis des Vaux.’32 Gerrit Braamcamp (1699-1771). He Hollands Archief – Kennemerland After his death, some of Calff’s statues erected the group in the garden of his Collection, found their way to a small garden in magnificent town house, Sweedenrijk, no. k88 53-015 11031. Zaandijk, where they still stand. With at number 462 Herengracht, among six

17 the rijksmuseum bulletin other statues after classical examples been purchased along with a number that had also come from Polanen and, of other casts of classical sculpture by possibly, also originally from Rome.34 the painter Hendrik Voogd in Rome From Braamcamp’s art gallery, which for the Amsterdam art society Felix was built on to the garden side of the Meritis. In the picture of the society’s house in 1760, visitors who had come statue gallery painted by Adriaan de to see his collection of paintings had a Lelie (1755-1820) in 1809, it stands in good view of the statues. In 1772, a year the middle of the room, to the right after Braamcamp’s death, the statues of another famous classical statue, were sold at auction for large sums. the Apollo Belvedere (fig. 19). The two The Laocoön fetched 1,025 guilders, originals were likewise displayed quite while the prices of the other statues close together in the Vatican museums ranged from 160 to 1,200 guilders.35 in Rome. The picture also shows two The buyer was probably a certain other casts of which Hope owned Mr Falk, who is mentioned elsewhere versions in lead: the Venus de’ Medici Fig. 19 as the owner, and the statue may have (left) and Amor Stringing his Bow (to adriaan de lelie, ended up at Welgelegen through him the left of the doorway). Between The Statue Gallery in 1789.36 1806 and 1810 King Louis Bonaparte of the Felix Meritis At that moment Hope owned the ordered a set of plaster casts for a Society, 1806-09. Oil on canvas, only life-sized example of the Laocoön museum from Humbert de Superville 100 x 133 cm. in the Low Countries. A second cast in Leiden, including a Laocoön made Amsterdam, was to arrive two years later. This one in Paris by the bronze-founder Joseph Amsterdam Museum, was an example in plaster that had Torrenti (fig. 20). The lead Laocoön at inv. no. sa 7364.

18 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

Welgelegen is now regarded as among attached to conceal the private parts Fig. 20 the oldest surviving life-sized copies of Laocoön and his sons from the joseph torrenti, of the original marble in the Vatican.37 shocked gaze of impressionable ladies Laocoön, c. 1806-10. The Laocoön must soon have attracted and children. They were probably Plaster, h. approx. 225 cm. attention in Haarlem, but the three removed during the twentieth century Leiden, nude men on the forecourt at Wel­ (fig. 21). The conversation between two Rijksmuseum gelegen were probably too much of a residents of Haarlem that Adriaan van Oudheden, good thing for the narrow-minded Loosjes – perhaps not entirely coinci- inv. no. i 1927/4.3. burghers. The latest restoration of the dentally also the executor of Nicolaas statues uncovered traces of solder where Calff’s will – reported in his Hollands lead loincloths or fig leaves had been Arkadia of Wandelingen in de Omstreken

19 the rijksmuseum bulletin

intimate world indoors and the less private outdoor sphere, since the other statues were in the gardens. It would have made sense to have the smaller statues indoors and the more monumental ones in the gardens. We know for certain that the Laocoön, the Venus de’ Medici and the Euterpe were outside. The Flying Mercury, designed to be viewed from all sides, would undoubtedly have been placed in the centre of one of the vestibules, corresponding to the central position of the original in the Villa Medici in Rome. Accompanying him were the Apollino and the Amor Stringing his Bow. Ganymede and the Eagle and the Bacchus and Ampelos group were in Fig. 21 van Haarlem (1804) illustrates the the vestibule on the garden side. These Detail of the private public interest in the statue. ‘What is five statues, in any event, continued to parts of Laocoön’s this large statue standing in the square adorn the interior of Welgelegen until son showing called?’ asks a man called Adriaan, to 1881. In that year they were moved to remnants of solder which his friend Cornelis replies, ‘It is the terrace of the main floor at the front from a fig leaf or câche-sexe. Laocoön wrestling with snakes, a cast of the house and in 1948 – Welgelegen of an antique, which is certainly why it had meanwhile long been the offices has been given a place here...38 And that of the Provincial Executive of North was no exaggeration. Holland – they were found places in the park at the back. The large Laocoön, Later Fortunes installed by Hope on the forecourt in In 1793, when the French invaded the 1789, is the only one of the statues Republic, Hope went to England. He never to have been moved. came back for a short while, but in The Crouching Venus with Amor the summer of 1794 he was forced to had probably already left Welgelegen move to London for good. He took his around 1800, because it does not considerable collection of paintings appear on the 1810 list. It was acquired with him, but the statues remained at at a sale in Amsterdam in 1961 for Welgelegen. Hope was never to see his the gardens of the former provincial Haarlem country house again. In 1808 government building in Assen, the it passed into the hands of his foster present provincial Drents Museum son, John Williams Hope, who sold it (see fig. 17).39 Before that it was a year later to King Louis Bonaparte successively at Wildhoef and Oud with the furniture, including all the Zomerzorg, houses near Bloemendaal. statues. According to the inventory Wildhoef was renovated in 1788 by the of Welgelegen drawn up in 1810, when architect Van der Hart, who was also Louis Bonaparte abdicated and left the involved in the work at Welgelegen Netherlands, there were five statues in at this time, for Willem Philip Kops the two vestibules, three at the front and (1755-1805). It would seem that Kops two statuary groups in the vestibule at bought the Venus and Amor from the back of the Pavilion. This would Hope’s possessions after he moved have been the logical place, because to England. It is, after all, hard to it meant that the statues provided a imagine that Kops ordered the statue fitting connection between the directly from Righetti.40

20 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

The history of the other five statues of time and inclemency of the seasons is known. The Venus de’Medici was – those you have reserved, are, if entire still at Welgelegen in 1920, albeit with very fine, I regret the Ste Susanna of one plaster arm; the other four, on the Duquesnoy, which with the Mercury orders of Hope himself, were melted of Jean de Bologne, are the two first down in or shortly after 1803 because modern statues existing, the latter I they were in such poor condition. With see you have kept, as you should, the a clear-eyed sense of perspec­tive, in a Cupid Adolescenti, the 3 Colossal letter of 2 October of that year written Apollo, Muliagre and Gladiator will from England, Hope responded to the yield their costs as lead, including their news that a number of his sculptures Pedestals. In fine it is a trifle added to were in a deplorable state: I am con­- the evils of the times and not worth cerned for the Shocking State and I a … regret. It’s well the Laocoon fear of the Statues, a little expense in remained and I hope in good repair, the beginning might have prevented the loss of this would have been such a desperate dilapidation by Lapse lametable­ indeed.’41

notes * This article is dedicated to Henk Rottinghuis Henry Cheere in the gardens of Queluz on the occasion of his retirement as president (Portugal), see F. Scholten, ‘The Larson of the Rijksmuseum Fund. Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth- Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens 1 The most important literature on the statues and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004/05), is F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the nos. 1 and 2, pp. 54-89; and M. Fulton, ‘John Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500- Cheere, the Eminent Statuary, his Workshop 1900, New Haven/London 1981, p. 93; A.M. and Practice, 1737-1787’, Sculpture Journal Koldeweij, ‘De loden beelden van Francesco 10 (2003), pp. 21-39. Among those lost are Righetti voor Welgelegen te Haarlem’, thirty-two lead statues from Charlottenburg Bulletin KNOB 82 (1983), pp. 1-24 and no. 9, Castle (Denmark), the twenty-eight statues figs. 12 and 13; R. de Leeuw et al., Herinnerin- from Fredensborg Castle (Denmark), the gen aan Italië, kunst en toerisme in de 18de lead statues from the Berlin castle of the eeuw, exh. cat. ’s-Hertogenbosch (Noord­ electors of Brandenburg, from Noordeinde brabants Museum)/Haarlem (Frans Hals Palace in The Hague, Elswout House near Museum)/Heino (Kasteel Het Nijenhuis) Haarlem and Bergh House in ’s-Heerenberg. 1984, no. 123; F. Grijzenhout and C. van I thank Caroline Arndt (metal conservation Tuyll van Serooskerken, Edele eenvoud. student, Potsdam), who drew my attention Neo-classicisme in Nederland 1765-1800, exh. to the existence of the Danish statues cat. Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum/Teylers (e-mail 2012, in Rijksmuseum Righetti file). Museum) 1989, no. 92; E. de Jong and 3 Made by Willem Noyons, Utrecht, and cast by C. Schellekens, Het beeld buiten. Vier eeuwen Messrs Steijlaart in Tiel. tuinsculptuur in Nederland, exh. cat. Heino 4 Restoration by Haber & Brandner, Regensburg. (Hannema-de Stuers Fundatie) 1994, The work involved repairing cracks and errors pp. 98, 99. I am indebted for supplementary from an earlier restoration, introducing a information to the anonymous reviewer stainless steel armature and removing the of my article (who provided some valuable modern grey finish, retouching superficial additions), to Gerrit Bosch, the curator of damage with water-based paint and applying the art collections of the Province of North a wax finish overall. The original white finish Holland (Haarlem), to Arjan de Koomen (lead white) had already been removed in (Amsterdam) and to Chiara Teolato (Rome). restoration work carried out around 1970 2 Others are the late seventeenth-century and replaced with mat grey paint. The core Netherlandish lead statues at Herrenhausen material and original armatures were also Castle (Hanover) and at Lerchenborg Castle removed at that time. (Denmark), and the eighteenth-century 5 Based on M.G. Buist, ‘Henry Hope, merchant- ensemble by the English sculptors John and bankier, bouwheer van Welgelegen’, in

21 the rijksmuseum bulletin

F.W.A. Beelaerts van Blokland et al., bronze-founders in the eighteenth century. Paviljoen Welgelegen 1789-1989. Van buiten­ See Scholten, op. cit. (note 2), p. 89. plaats van de bankier Hope tot zetel van de 22 A zecchino was 3.5 grams of pure gold. The provincie Noord-Holland, Haarlem 1989, currency equivalent is based on the price of pp. 15-26. the Piranesi mantelpiece for John Hope dating 6 Mr Pratt, Gleanings through Wales, Holland from the mid-1760s (now in the Rijksmuseum, and Westphalia, London 1802, pp. 329-30. inv. no. bk-15449). It cost 70 zecchini, which 7 J. Heijenbrok and G. Steenmeijer, ‘Meer dan according to Hope’s inventory corresponded Welgelegen: Abraham van der Hart en de to 368 guilders, see Niemeijer, op. cit. familie Hope’, Bulletin knob 107 (2008), (note 10), p. 209. nos. 5-6, pp. 196-97. 23 This is assumed on the grounds of the 8 B.C. Sliggers, ‘Henry Hope’s vermakelijke building traces found in this room during buitenleven en de Haarlemmerhout’, in the most recent restoration of Welgelegen. Beelaerts van Blokland et al., op. cit. (note 5), With thanks to Jacqueline Heijenbrok and pp. 27-39. Guido Steenmeijer (De Fabryk, Bureau voor 9 Heijenbrok and Steenmeijer, op. cit. (note 7). Gebouwhistorisch Onderzoek, Utrecht) for 10 J.W. Niemeijer, ‘De kunstverzameling van this information. John Hope (1737-1784)’, Nederlands Kunst­ 24 For more information on Righetti and this historisch Jaarboek 32 (1981), pp. 127-232, esp. statue see E. Lingo, François Duquesnoy and pp. 133, 134, 157, 208 (fig. 22), 209 (no. 370); the Greek Ideal, New Haven /London 2007, M.D. Haga, ‘“Een ongemeen schone antique p. 158. schoorsteenmantel”’, Bulletin van het Rijks- 25 Amsterdam City Archives, 735, inv. no. 464, museum 38 (1990), pp. 324-35. Henry Hope’s correspondence book, letter 11 M. Schreuder, ‘De kunstverzameling van dated 2 October 1803 from Henry Hope to Henry Hope’, in Beelaerts van Blokland John Williams Hope in the Netherlands. et al., op. cit. (note 5), pp. 93-121, esp. p. 96. With thanks to Jacqueline Heijenbrok and 12 ‘… cavaliere chiamato m. Hope, mezzo Guido Steenmeijer (De Fabryk, Bureau voor Inglese, mezzo Olandese, e ricchissimo’. Gebouwhistorisch Onderzoek, Utrecht) for Schreuder, op. cit. (note 11), p. 96. this information. 13 R. Righetti, ‘Fonditori in bronzo romani del 26 Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), p. 147. Settecento e dell’ Ottocento: i Valadier e i 27 Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), p. 325. Righetti’, L’Urbe 5 (1940), no. 11, pp. 2-19. 28 See Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), p. 240, 14 H. Honour, ‘Bronze Statuettes by Giacomo for the confusion of Idolino with Bacchus. and Giovanni Zoffoli’, The Connoisseur 148 29 Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 288-91 (November 1961), pp. 198-205; Haskell and (no. 71), esp. p. 290. Penny, op. cit. (note 1), p. 93. 30 ‘Een Afgietzel of Copy, in ’t lood, van deze 15 A set of bronzes like this can be seen on the allerschoonste Group, versierd, sedert mantelpiece in a portrait of Sir Lawrence den laatsten Zomer, het voorplein van het Dundas by Johan Zoffany of c. 1770, pragtig Landhuis des Heren Hope, even surrounded by paintings predominantly by buiten deze stad (Haerlem). De overledene seventeenth-century Dutch artists, see Haskell oudheid- en Kunstminnende Hr. N. Kalf, van and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), p. 94, fig. 53. Westzaandam, was, so wy wel onderregt zyn, 16 E. Peters Bowron and J.J. Rishel (eds.), Art in vroegere Jaren bezitter van dit fraay en in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat. kostbaar stuk; het geen hy, te Rome zynde, Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art) gekogt en van daar naar zyn Hofstede 2000, pp. 276-77. Polanen, by Halfweg, hadde doen voeren. 17 Now in the Museo Pio-Clementino in Rome. Na hem wierd de Heer Braamkamp, te 18 C. Teolato, ‘Roman Bronzes at the Court of Amsterdam, door aan koop eigenaar deser Gustavus iii of Sweden: Zoffoli, Valadier Group. Men heeft er telkens ene aanzienlyke and Righetti’, The Burlington Magazine 153 somme gelds voor betaald.’ Algemene Konst- (November 2011), pp. 727-33. en Letterbode voor meer- en mingeoefenden 79 19 At the entrance of the Palazzo Brera, Milan. (1 January 1790), p. 6, first column. 20 See Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 1), 31 R. Couwenhoven, ‘De familie Calff, vrienden pp. 342-43 (Appendix). van de Czaar’, Met stoom vii (September 21 The idea of publishing catalogues of this kind 1996), no. 24. was not new; in the late seventeenth century 32 ‘… daar voorheen de lustplaats van zekeren the Amsterdam caster of lead statues Barend heer Calf gezien werd, gestaan heeft. Deze Dronrijp was already offering his products laatste plaats, welke mede Polanen genoemd in this way, an initiative taken up by English werd, was in vroeger tijd beroemd door een

22 reconstructionthe of the welgelegen cuypers floor lead statues in the entrance hall

groot aantal kostbare en keurige afgietsels 37 Baccio Bandinelli carved a marble copy actual van antieken, die de toenmalige bezitter size in 1523 (Uffizi, Florence), a bronze cast was Klaas of Nicolaas Calf, van West-Zaandam made for Fontainebleau, the French sculptor geboortig, op zijne reize in Italie, waar Jean-Baptiste carved a marble copy for Ver- hij Marquis des Vaux werd genoemd, sailles in 1684-96 (now by the entrance to the had doen vervaardigen.’ A.J. van der Aa, Tapis Vert, Versailles, see A. Maral, Parcours Aardrijks­kundig woordenboek der Neder- mythologique dans les jardins de Versailles, landen, vol. 9, Gorinchem 1847, pp. 224-25 Paris 2012, pp. 103-05) and a bronze version (under Polanen). See also J. Kok, Vaderland- was cast by the Kellers. That one is now at sch Woordenboek, vol. 24, Amsterdam 1791, Houghton in Norfolk, see Haskell and Penny, pp. 30, 31. The statue parks of Polanen and op. cit. (note 1), p. 244. There is also a sixteenth- later of Sweedenrijk appear to be direct century copy in the Biblioteca Ambriosiana predecessors of the one at Welgelegen. The in Milan and a seventeenth-century bronze combination of a collection of seventeenth- version in the Skulpturengalerie in Dresden. and eighteenth-century paintings in the Lastly there are two seventeenth-century house and casts of classical statues outside, versions that ended up in Sweden: a marble as Gerrit Braamcamp had, appears to have dating from 1650 and owned by Queen been the inspiration for the concept of Wel- Christina, which was probably destroyed in gelegen. a fire in 1697, and a plaster example that was 33 A. Huxley, Along the Road. Notes and Essays brought to Sweden a year later by the architect of a Tourist, London 1948, p. 115. With Nicodemus Tessin the Younger; it had been thanks to Wouter Kloek for this information. cast in Paris with moulds that belonged to It cannot be ruled out that the two lead King Louis xiv. Tessin’s example is still in statues in the coach house of Museum the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, see van Loon at number 672 Keizersgracht in J. Zahle, ‘Laocoön in Scandinavia, uses and Amsterdam – a Flora Farnese and a Silenus workshops 1587 onwards’, in R. Frederiksen with the young Bacchus in his arms – also and E. Marchand (eds.), Plaster Casts: originally came from Calff’s collection. Making, Collecting and Displaying from 34 C. Bille, De tempel der kunst of het kabinet van Classical Antiquity to the Present, Berlin/ den heer Braamcamp, Amsterdam 1961, p. 80. New York 2010, pp. 143-62, esp. pp. 148, 149. According to the catalogue of the sale of the With thanks to Arjan de Koomen for his Braamcamp Collection in 1772, these statues infor­mation about the last four examples. were ‘all cast from hard composition’ and 38 ‘Hoe heet dit groote beeld dat op het plein came from ‘the Polanen estate at Halfweg, staat?’; ‘’t Is Laökoön met slangen worste- between Amsterdam and Haarlem, previously lende, een afgietsel naar een antiek, waarom having belonged to Mr Kalf; they have always het zeker hier een plaats gekregen heeft...’ been famed as the finest and most artistic Cited from Koldeweij, op. cit. (note 1), p. 1. statues ever seen in Holland.’ (‘... alle van 39 Now in the collection of the Drents Museum harde compositie gegooten’; ‘afkomstig in Assen, see Grijzenhout and Van Tuyll van van de Buitenplaats Polaanen, gelegen op Serooskerken, op. cit. (note 1), no. 92. With Halfwegen, tussen Amsterdam en Haarlem, thanks to Willemijn Lindenhovius, Drents weleer toebehoord hebbende aan de Heere Museum, for this information. Kalf; en zyn altyd beroemd geweest voor de 40 With thanks to Jacqueline Heijenbrok and fraaiste en kunstigste Beelden, die men in Guido Steenmeijer (De Fabryk, Bureau voor Holland gezien heeft.’) Gebouwhistorisch Onderzoek, Utrecht) for 35 Bille, op. cit. (note 32), p. 80. this information. 36 See De Leeuw et al., op. cit. (note 1), no. 123, 41 Amsterdam City Archives, 735, inv. no. 464, pp. 188, 189, where Falk is referred to as the Henry Hope’s correspondence book, seller to Hope. This was probably George letter dated 2 October 1803 from Henry Tammo Falck (1715- in or after 1783) or his Hope to his adopted son John Williams brother Karel Gustaaf Falck (1716-1785). Like Hope, who had stayed in the Republic. so many members of the Falck family, they With thanks to Jacqueline Heijenbrok and had both made their fortunes in the east in Guido Steenmeijer (De Fabryk, Bureau the service of the Dutch East India Company. voor Gebouwhistorisch Onderzoek, Utrecht) The two are also associated with Sandbergen, for this information and the transcription. a country estate near Zeist; George Tammo Cupid Adolescenti [= Amor Stringing his was said to have bought the house and had it Bow], the 3 Colossal Apollo [= Bacchus renovated in 1754, Karel Gustaaf is described Medici?], Muliagre [= Papirius and his as the Lord of Sandbergen. Mother?] and Gladiator [= Antinous?].

23