The Rijksmuseum Bulletin, volume 67 (2019), issue 4
CONTENTS AND ABSTRACTS

‘Spot the Difference’: Technical Research into Two Versions of The Lamentation of Christ, Attributed to Colijn de Coter
NIENKE WOLTMAN

The small, unsigned panel The Lamentation of Christ in the Rijksmuseum’s Collection is attributed to Colijn de Coter and dated around 1510-15. There is another, almost identical version in a private collection. Visual analysis and analytical techniques including uv fluorescence, infrared reflectography, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-radiography, dendrochronology and paint sample analysis, were used to examine and compare the materials and techniques in both paintings in order to investigate the relationship between the two. Because only a small oeuvre is attributed to De Coter and there has as yet been very little scientific analysis of his paintings, this comparative investigation provides more information about the artist’s workshop practices. This research has revealed that the materials and techniques used in the two versions differ hardly at all and, moreover, correspond to standard practice in early sixteenth-century painting in the Low Countries. The thicker outlines in the underdrawings in both cases indicate that the compositions were traced or copied from the same model. The underdrawings of the two Lamentations also correspond to those in other paintings attributed to the artist. This makes it likely that both versions came from De Coter’s workshop.

Esaias Boursse’s ‘Tijkenboeck’: A Pictorial Catalogue of People Working and Living in and around Colombo, 1662
LODEWIJK WAGENAAR AND MIEKE BEUMER

We do not know who trained Esaias Boursse (1631-1672) to be a painter, but we do know that he became a member of the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke around 1651. He certainly did not have a successful career because he joined the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1661. He travelled to Colombo, the capital of the Island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka since 1972), captured six years earlier by the Portuguese, by way of Batavia (now Jakarta). In 1663 he was back in Amsterdam – remarkable, as the standard contract with the voc was for five years. In financial straits again, he re-joined the VOC in 1671 and left for Asia. Shortly after leaving he died at sea. In 1996 an album containing 116 drawings came to light, most of them made by Boursse during his time in Ceylon; he made only a small number during his outward or return journeys to the Cape of Good Hope. The drawings are completely different from his earlier known oeuvre of genre paintings and prints with religious themes. The pages in his ‘Tijkenboeck’ provide a unique picture of what Boursse saw in and around Colombo. They are important evidence of the early days of the VOC in its conquered colony of Ceylon.

Short Notice
Antonio Rizzo’s Tondo of the Virgin and Child and the Influence of Donatello
STAN BRAAM

Acquisitions from the F.G. Waller-Fonds
ERIK HINTERDING, HUIGEN LEEFLANG AND MANON VAN DER MULLEN