Case 1 ( ): A Dutch Silver ewer and basin by Christian van Vianen

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1 Case 1 ( ): A Dutch Silver ewer and basin by Christian van Vianen Expert Adviser s Statement Reviewing Committee Secretary s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England Website EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief description of items A silver ewer and basin (see Appendix, fig. 1), the ewer 25.4 cm high; the basin 53.3 x 43 cm; their combined weight, 85 oz. Both ewer and basin marked with the maker s mark of Christian van Vianen of Utrecht (c / ), and both pieces bearing the Utrecht assay office date mark for The condition of the ewer and basin is excellent: there are only a few small splits to the border of the basin. These are consistent with age and use. 2. Context Provenance Johan van der Haer ( ) and Maria van Kinschot ( ) Johan van der Haer was a financial administrator of the Estates General, Maria was his wife.? Johan van der Haer the younger and his descendants Johan and Maria s son, also Johan, married at Zierikzee in 1632 and his descendants were related to several notable Zeeland families. The tax mark Z for Zierikzee (in the Dutch province of Zeeland) shows that the ewer and basin remained in the Dutch provinces until 1795 at the earliest. Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex ( ): sold at Christie s, 22 June 1843, lot 78. Sir George Murray: sold at Christie s, 24 July, 1891, lot 55. The Marquess of Sligo The Countess of Rosebery: sold at Sotheby s, London, 2 June, 1977, lot 186 listed as among Various Properties. British Railways Pension Fund His Excellency Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir Exhibited On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Christie s, London: exhibition The Glory of the Goldsmith Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection (January 1990) On loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Gallery, London, exhibition: Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (September December 1976) Utrecht, Centraal Museum, exhibition: Zeldzaam Zilver uit de Gouden Eeuw: Utrechtse edelsmadan Van Vianen (December 1984 February 1985) The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, exhibition: Vier eeuwen Nederlands zilver (July - September 1952)

2 Key Publications J. R. ter Molen, Van Vianen: een Utrechtse familie van zilversmeden met een internationale faam, 2 vols (Leiderdorp: Gemeentedrukkerij Rotterdam, 1984) Ronald Lightbown, Christian van Vianen at the Court of Charles I, Apollo, LXXXVII (1968), The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, ed. by Charles Truman, catalogue of the exhibition held at Christie s London, 3 rd 22 nd January 1990 (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1989) 3. Waverley criteria The van Vianen ewer and basin meet Waverley criteria (2) they are of outstanding aesthetic importance. The van Vianen ewer and basin meet Waverley criteria (3) they are of outstanding significance to the study of the history and development of European decorative arts, the history of silversmithing, and the history of European royal patronage and collecting. Brief statement in support of this objection on the grounds of Waverley criteria 2 and 3 We submit that the innovative design of Christian van Vianen s ewer and basin and the extraordinary skill with which they were executed mean they are of outstanding aesthetic importance. The influence of van Vianen s works and the admiration they aroused are important elements in the study of taste, collecting and the decorative arts across Europe. DETAILED CASE 1. The objects A silver ewer and basin, made as a pair in Utrecht in 1632 by Christian van Vianen (c. 1600/ ) (fig. 1). The ewer: The body of the ewer is raised from a single sheet of silver, with a hinged silver lid and applied hollow handle also of silver. The underside of the foot is applied with four strips of silver which are probably a later addition to enable the ewer to sit over the later coat of arms applied to the centre of the basin. The body of the vessel is asymmetric and defined by the ornamental figures and scroll-shapes that flow across its surface. The lid is embossed in the form of a fantastical sea-creature, its mouth the opening at the lip of the body of the vessel. The handle has been modelled in the form of a sea-serpent. The arms applied to the front of the ewer are later, and are those of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex ( ) (fig. 2). The arms are surrounded by the ribbon of the Order of the Garter embossed with the motto of the Order. The basin: Oval in shape, embossed and chased from a single sheet of silver. The form of a fantastical creature embossed on the rim at one end; the creature leans into the basin and 2

3 appears to drink. The interior of the basin divided into seven lobes, the centre reserved for a coat of arms flanked by four embossed shells. The arms are those of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex ( ) surrounded by the ribbon of the Order of the Garter embossed with the motto of the Order. They are on a plaque applied over the original Dutch arms. The original arms visible in reverse on the underside of the basin (fig. 3) are those of Johan van der Haer ( ) and his wife Maria van Kinschot ( ). Marks The ewer is marked under the lip (fig. 4). From left to right, the marks are: a shield in a circular punch, the town mark for Utrecht; the letter P, the date letter for the assay year 1632; assay mark Z for Zierikzee for the year Below, a zig-zag mark which represents part of the assaying process, whereby silver samples are removed for testing the purity of the silver. Another zig-zag assay mark on the underside of the lid. The basin marked on the centre of the underside, marks from left to right: AV in monogram, the mark of the goldsmith Christian van Vianen; a shield in a circular punch, the town mark for Utrecht; the letter P, the date letter for the assay year These marks are quite worn. Above them, assay mark Z for Zierikzee for the year Importance Christian van Vianen: Life and Work Christian van Vianen came from an established family of Utrecht goldsmiths. His father Adam was famed for his innovative pieces which explored the possibilities of rendering the liquid properties of metal in sculptural form. This is strikingly illustrated in his ewer of 1614, made for the Guild of Amsterdam Goldsmiths (fig. 5: Adam van Vianen, Ewer, 1614, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). Christian was apprenticed to his father, inherited his workshop, and absorbed and developed his father s aesthetic and intellectual ideas. He also adopted his father s AV monogram as his own maker s mark. Around 1650, Christian published a series of his father s designs for silverwares. 2 Unlike his father, Christian did not remain in Utrecht all his life but spent two extended periods in England and was buried there. A receipt shows he was already working for Charles I in 1630, but he did not arrive in London until 1632, where he remained almost permanently until 1643, when he returned to Utrecht. The 1 ter Molen, Die Utrechtse edelsmeden Van Vianen, cat. No. 87 (p. 98) for the marks; see also ter Molen, Zilver, p. 645 (for the Zierikzee mark). 2 Constighe Modellen, Van verscheijden Silvere Vaten, en andere sinnighe wercken, gevonden ende Geteeckent door den vermaerden E. Adam van Vianen Sijnde meerendeels door hem uyt een Stuck silvers geslagen ( Ingenious models for various silver vessels, and other works of the imagination, invented and designed by the renowned silversmith Adam van Vianen, many of them raised from a single sheet of silver ). 3

4 restoration of Charles II brought him back to the English capital in November 1660, where he entered into partnership with another Dutch goldsmith. In 1663 Charles appointed him silversmyth in ordinary to the royal household. Christian died in 1667 and was succeeded at court for a while by his son-in-law, John Cooqus. 3 Christian van Vianen and a new aesthetic for silver The ewer and basin made by Christian for Johan van der Haer and Maria van Kinschot are superb examples of the extraordinary style of silversmithing which he developed from his father and which aroused such admiration among contemporary and later collectors. The hugely significant aspect of the works of Adam, and then Christian, van Vianen is that they developed a striking new aesthetic and a new way in which silver could be appreciated. Their fluid, sculptural approach to silver design had its visual origins in latesixteenth-century Northern European engravings (fig. 6: Hendrick Goltzius, Bacchus, engraving after Cornelis Cornelisz (detail), 1598, Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam), which in turn were inspired by reworkings of a form of Ancient Roman ornament dubbed grotesque by Renaissance artists. The flowing, organic forms of the works produced by Adam and Christian had an intellectual justification, Platonic in origin, that all metals were liquids that had congealed beneath the earth. Moreover, as moisture sustained the vital heat of all living creatures, the aqueous character of metals meant they could on some level be considered living organisms. 4 This is certainly reflected in the sinuous, plastic vessels they created. The ewer and basin also show the close relationship between the works of father and son. The organic form of the ewer in particular harks back to the design of a 1619 one made by Adam (fig. 7, private collection). The similarities lie in the treatment of form, and in particular design elements such as the bearded face beneath the lip and the huddled figure strapped beneath the handle. Christian s technical skills are also the equal of his father s. Ewer and basin are each raised from a single sheet of silver, a tremendous feat of goldsmithing skill when such pieces were commonly constructed in sections that combined parts that had been separately cast and raised. Ewers and basins which survive as a pair are few, as they are so easily separated by the accidents of time. This is the only example by Christian van Vianen extant today (although documents show he made at least two others 5 ) and as such is a rare opportunity to appreciate the aesthetic effect of a matching set of ewer and basin. Influence of this aesthetic 3 Biographical information taken from ter Molen, Van Vianen, I, chapter 5 and English summary pp See for example the comments on the subject in Bernardo Pérez de Vargas, De re metalica, Book I, chapter 1. 5 See ter Molen, Van Vianen, II, nos 612 and

5 The boldness of the van Vianens work was rarely imitated in its fullest sense. Christian van Vianen introduced the style to English court circles, and although later English goldsmiths used these fluid forms as surface ornament, they did not exploit their sculptural possibilities (fig. 8: Lowther porringer and salver (detail), London 1660, unidentified mark DR between two mullets, V&A Loan: Metalwork Anon ). Dutch artists, on the other hand, included van Vianen-style silverware in their still-life paintings, inspired by Christian s published designs, gesso models or the works themselves. Rembrandt, for example, owned a plaster Diana Bathing by Adam van Viane. 6 These images of the vessels not only showcase the artists skill at rendering in two dimensions an object originally designed to be seen in three, but also reflect the painters interest in depicting the new forms of a familiar material (fig. 9: Willem Kalf, Still life with Silver Jug, , Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). We submit, therefore, that the ewer and basin are of outstanding aesthetic importance (Waverley criteria 2) because they represent a rare moment in the history of art when a branch of the decorative arts developed a striking and innovative style. The technical skill with which these pieces were executed is also exceptional. Rarity of the Pieces and their Significance to Scholarship We also submit that the ewer and basin are of outstanding significance for the study of art history and the history of European patronage and collecting (Waverley criteria 3). The style pioneered by Christian van Vianen and his father Adam has received the modern name of auricular (because it is thought to resemble the fleshy curves of a human ear). This ewer and basin are superb examples of a form introduced to England by Christian van Vianen which is poorly represented in the public collections of the UK. There is only one signed piece of work by him in an English museum, the so-called Dolphin Basin in the V&A which survives without its corresponding ewer, however (fig. 10: V&A M ). Equally there are few examples in private collections in the British Isles. The Rothschild collections at Waddesdon Manor include a cup of in the auricular style, marked with Christian s AV monogram; the faintly-visible monogram on the underside of the footed salver in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle is probably also that of Christian. Other examples of the auricular style in public galleries and stately homes, however, can only be attributed to Christian on stylistic or documentary grounds (eg. the inkstand on loan to the V&A marked for , the unmarked two-handled covered cup at the Fitzwilliam Museum, M ). The two identifiable coats of arms preserved on the ewer and basin provide rare evidence for the status and occupation of the original owners, as well as an indication of the esteem in which works by the van Vianen goldsmiths were held by foreign 6 See ter Molen, Adam van Vianen s Silverware, p

6 collectors. Documentary evidence supports this. Charles I kept a silver candlestick he purchased from Christian in 1633 not for use, but in the Cabinet Room where he displayed pictures and rarieties. 7 Praised by a contemporary biographer as one of a line of goldsmiths who excelled in hammering grotesque shapes from silver, 8 Christian s works later attracted the attention of Prince Augustus Frederick, the Duke of Sussex ( ), a collector genuinely interested in art and science. This royal duke served as President of the Society of Arts in 1816 and President of the Royal Society from 1830 to A recent study of his silver collection stresses his exceptional interest (for his time) in sixteenth and seventeenth century silver and pieces formerly owned by members of the British Royal Family. 9 The muddled descriptions in the catalogue of the sale make identification of many pieces he owned uncertain or impossible. This ewer and basin, presented in the 1843 sale as a scalloped dish and vase for rosewater in beautiful ancient taste, also bear his coat-ofarms and so are among the few items to survive that can be securely linked to his collection. In addition to silver, the Duke of Sussex was a considerable collector of miniatures, watches, scientific instruments and sculpture. He assembled a magnificent library of over 50,000 volumes including a thousand editions of the Bible. The van Vianen ewer and basin are thus an important witness to the distinctive taste of a member of the English royal family, who has not received the scholarly attention devoted to his older brothers, the Prince Regent and the Duke of York. The Duke of Sussex s ownership of such an outstanding piece of silver demonstrates there are still avenues of research into English collecting and aesthetic attitudes to be explored. Bibliography The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, catalogue of the exhibition held at Christie s London, 3 rd 22 nd January 1990 (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1989), cat. no. 5. Ronald Lightbown, Christian van Vianen at the Court of Charles I, Apollo, LXXXVII (1968), J. R. ter Molen, Zilver (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1994). ----, Van Vianen: een Utrechtse familie van zilversmeden met een internationale faam, 2 vols (Leiderdorp: Gemeentedrukkerij Rotterdam, 1984) ----, Adam van Vianen s Silverware in Relation to Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Apollo, CX (1979) [Special Issue: Dutch Art and its Golden Age], Cited in Lightbown, Christian van Vianen at the Court of Charles I, p von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie, II, Book 3 (on Netherlandish artists), p. 342; see text online at [accessed ]. 9 Schroder, The Duke of Sussex and his collection, p. 47 and pp

7 Zeldzaam Zilver uit de Gouden Eeuw: De Utrechtse edelsmeden Van Vianen, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Centraal Museum Utrecht, 14 December February 1985 (Utrecht: Centraal Museum, 1984), cat. No. 87 (p. 98). Bernardo Pérez de Vargas, De Re Metalica: En el qval se tratan mvchos y diversos secretos del conocimiento de toda suerte de minerales (Madrid: Pierres Cosin, 1569). Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der Bau-, Bildhauer-, und Maler-Kunst (Nuremberg: 1675); text available online at Timothy Schroder, The Duke of Sussex and his collection, The Silver Society Journal 14 (2002), Christian van Vianen, Constighe Modellen, Van verscheijden Silvere Vaten [...] (Utrecht:?1650). 7