CONTENTS AND ABSTRACTS

The Dog in The Night Watch: Rembrandt Inspired by Adriaen van de Venne
ANNE LENDERS

Contrary to the past assumption that the dog in Rembrandt’s The Night Watch was the product of studies drawn from life, the author of the present short notice argues for the first time that the master looked instead to an already existing example, most likely a design drawing by Adriaen van de Venne (1590-1662). The design drawing was made for the engraved title page of Jacob Cats’s Self-stryt, dat is, Krachtighe beweginghe van Vlees ende Gheest, a popular emblem book first published in 1620. In form and pose, the dog in Rembrandt’s painting greatly resembles Van de Venne’s drawn animal. The article examines similarities between the two depictions, showing that Rembrandt had conceivably seen Van de Venne’s image and that the use of such examples was entirely in line with his working practice.

Hero or Buffoon? Remarks on Rembrandt’s Standard Bearer
BOUDEWIJN BAKKER

For many decades, the interpretation of Rembrandt’s painting The Standard Bearer has been a subject of debate. Some authors see the painting as a self-portrait of the artist in fanciful attire, others view it as the half-length depiction of an imaginary figure for which the painter, like in other works, turned to himself as a model. Numerous art historians have attempted to classify the depicted figure as a type, much like a traditional tronie, but with greatly diverging outcomes. For some, Rembrandt’s standard bearer is the type of the fearless soldier fighting on behalf of the fatherland, as in the caption below a print by Hendrick Goltzius depicting an army captain. Still others point to the Lansquenet tradition, in which he is seen as a laughable, comical figure found in prints by or after Jörg Breu the Younger. Recently, the latter two opinions were strongly argued, respectively by Jonathan Bikker and Eric Jan Sluijter. As a third possibility, the author of the present article introduces Goltzius’s chiaroscuro woodcut of Mars as Rembrandt’s primary formal source of inspiration. He also highlights the duplicitous nature of the representation as a whole and the intriguing but by no means overtly comical or proud facial expression of the persona conceived by Rembrandt. To what extent Rembrandt was referring to himself is a question left open by the author.

Marian and Commemorative Iconography Combined: The ‘Spes Nostra’ Epitaph in the Context of the Liturgical Practices of Mariënpoel Convent
RENS TIENSTRA

Remarkable for its unique combination of Marian and commemorative iconography, the so-called ‘Spes Nostra’ painting of circa 1500 – a memorial tablet also known as an epitaph – has fuelled an ongoing debate regarding its purported message and commissioners. Despite a wide range of proposed interpretations, none of the proffered hypotheses fully explains all the elements the image contains. In the present article, the oft-mentioned possibility of a connection to liturgical practice (from which the unknown master’s name of convenience was born) is further explored through the consultation of liturgical sources, including chant books. To this end, two undisputed elements of the panel are taken as starting points: the clergy’s vestments, pointing to the panel’s function in a Devotio Moderna community under the Rule of St Augustine, and the Visitation iconography. Based on a large corpus of Devotio Moderna sources, the unicity of the panel’s combinatory iconography is demonstrated. Moreover, a unique practice in the Devout convent of Marienpoel near Leiden, combining the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the commemoration of the convent’s members and benefactors, is brought to light. The exact parallelism of Marienpoel’s specific practice to the panel’s iconographic themes provides compelling argument for its localization in that community.

‘Why are you stripping me from myself?’ Willem van Tetrode’s Écorché and its Nachleben
FRITS SCHOLTEN

In 2023, the Rijksmuseum acquired a bronze écorché attributed to Willem van Tetrode (1525-1580). The sculpture is considered the finest of the five known casts of this flayed figure. Tetrode probably conceived it during his stay in Florence and Rome circa 1562-67. This period is marked by a growing fascination among artists with the study of human anatomy, particularly at the newly founded Accademia del Disegno in Florence. It was precisely among the fiamminghi, Netherlandish artists in Italy, that a keen interest in anatomical studies can be observed during these years. Tetrode’s model seems to be one of the earliest – if not the earliest known – examples of an active, striding écorché in sculpture. Its popularity among seventeenth-century artists in the Low Countries is reflected in plaster casts depicted in various Dutch and Flemish paintings and drawings, such as those by Rubens and Gerard van Honthorst.

Print Room Acquisitions
MARIAN COUSIJN, HINDE HAEST, ERIK HINTERDING, MARIJE JANSEN, CHARLES KANG, HUIGEN LEEFLANG, AUSTĖJA MACKELAITĖ, HANS ROOSEBOOM, MAUD VAN SUYLEN AND JOYCE ZELEN