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  Uit de schaduw van Hendrick de Keyser. Gerrit Lambertsen van Cuilenborch (1597-1657), beeldhouwer en bouwmeester

  Gerrit Lambertsen van Cuilenborch began his career in the studio of Hendrick de Keyser. Later he worked for the Danish king and as sculptor in Kampen and municipal building supervisor in Zwolle. The early classicism of Van Cuilenborch’s buildings in those two towns was quite obviously influenced by his teacher, Hendrick de Keyser. As with other architects, during the course of his career the superimposed rows of pilasters evolved into a colossal order of pilasters. The ionic capital of no. 14 Melkmarkt in Zwolle is planar, as was usual with Serlio and Hendrick de Keyser, whereas Vingboons and other contemporaries favoured the diagonal variant proposed by Scamozzi. Lions’ heads proved to be a useful decorative detail for making a distinction or attribution. Although an iconographic interpretation is as yet lacking, one encounters two different types of lions: stern or affable. Another element that changed over time is the oeil-de-boeuf window, but I have not pursued that in detail. Nor have I investigated the classical treatises or iconological sources that Van Cuilenborch may have consulted, as was done for Hendrik de Keyser’s Medusa in a recent erudite article in this journal.

  Although this article affords only a small glimpse of the life and work of the sculptor Gerrit Lambertsen van Cuilenborch and his studio, and although the attribu Aantion is far from absolutely certain, Van Cuilenborch does now have a recognizable, independent place in history. 

  Van Cuilenborch used sample prints for his facade tablets. He also drew inspiration from models and studied Van Mander’s Schilder-Boeck, which referred to Amsterdam painters he would have known personally, such as Salomon de Bray and Pieter Isaacsz who had worked with him in Denmark for Christian IV. The high quality of his sculpture work in Amsterdam and Denmark is still discernible in various facade tablets and in the carved heads at no. 9 Broederweg in Kampen. With the exception of no. 100 Buiten Nieuwstraat in Kampen, the architectural quality of the facades he built in Kampen and Zwolle is inferior to those built previously under the auspices of Hendrick de Keyser. Van Cuilenborch was first and foremost a master sculptor, only secondarily a mason and, in common with most Dutch municipal building supervisors, no architect at all. With the assistance of other disciplines, such as carpenters and surveyors, he created new market squares in Kampen and Zwolle on the site of a former monastery. In Kampen the buildings were of a mainly representive character, while those around the square in Zwolle were more in the nature of what we would nowadays call property development.

  Gerrit Lambertsen van Cuilenborch began his career in the studio of Hendrick de Keyser. Later he worked for the Danish king and as sculptor in Kampen and municipal building supervisor in Zwolle. The early classicism of Van Cuilenborch’s buildings in those two towns was quite obviously influenced by his teacher, Hendrick de Keyser. As with other architects, during the course of his career the superimposed rows of pilasters evolved into a colossal order of pilasters. The ionic capital of no. 14 Melkmarkt in Zwolle is planar, as was usual with Serlio and Hendrick de Keyser, whereas Vingboons and other contemporaries favoured the diagonal variant proposed by Scamozzi. Lions’ heads proved to be a useful decorative detail for making a distinction or attribution. Although an iconographic interpretation is as yet lacking, one encounters two different types of lions: stern or affable. Another element that changed over time is the oeil-de-boeuf window, but I have not pursued...

  Gerrit Lambertsen van Cuilenborch began his career in the studio of Hendrick de Keyser. Later he worked for the Danish king and as sculptor in Kampen and municipal building supervisor in Zwolle. The early classicism of Van Cuilenborch’s buildings in those two towns was quite...

  Dirk J. de Vries

  57-79

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  ‘Les meilleures architectes du roi’. Een onbekende brief uit 1628 over de vroege bouwperiode van het Huis Honselaarsdijk

  This article examines a recently discovered letter written to Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange by his French agent Nicolas Tassin in 1628 concerning the improvement of the palace and gardens of Honselaarsdijk in the Netherlands. Although Frederik Hendrik had already started renovating his estate in 1621 there is very little information about the period between 1621 and 1633. The 1628 letter is therefore a rare and valuable source for the early phase of Honselaarsdijk’s history.

   With his letter, Tassin enclosed a ground plan for a redesign of Honselaarsdijk made according to the advice of the ‘best architects of the king’ [of France]. This confirms the hypothesis that French architects were involved in the design of Honselaarsdijk from an early stage. Although the 1628 ground plan did not survive, Tassin’s description of the plan suggested changes to the building, which were duly carried out by Pieter Post from 1646 onwards (figs. 4, 5, 8).

   Unfortunately, the letter does not mention the names of the ‘best architects of the king’ Tassin had consulted in France. It is, however, most likely that one of those French architects was Jacques Lemercier. Lemercier can be linked to two other Frenchmen who later worked for Frederik Hendrik: the master mason and architect Simon de la Vallée and the gardener André Mollet, who worked at the same time on one of Lemercier’s court commissions. De la Vallée and André Mollet both started to work for Frederik Hendrik in 1633.

  The 1628 letter reveals another interesting connection between France and the court of the stadtholder: Tassin had approached Jacques Boyceau de la Baraudière to design parterres for the gardens at Honselaarsdijk. This confirms the hypothesis that the celebrated gardener contributed to Honselaarsdijk’s gardens before the arrival of Claude Mollet in 1633. Although further details are lacking (such as Frederik Hendrik’s response and both previous and subsequent correspondence on these matters), the letter is an important early record of Frederik Hendrik’s royal ambitions as architectural patron.

  This article examines a recently discovered letter written to Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange by his French agent Nicolas Tassin in 1628 concerning the improvement of the palace and gardens of Honselaarsdijk in the Netherlands. Although Frederik Hendrik had already started renovating his estate in 1621 there is very little information about the period between 1621 and 1633. The 1628 letter is therefore a rare and valuable source for the early phase of Honselaarsdijk’s history.

   With his letter, Tassin enclosed a ground plan for a redesign of Honselaarsdijk made according to the advice of the ‘best architects of the king’ [of France]. This confirms the hypothesis that French architects were involved in the design of Honselaarsdijk from an early stage. Although the 1628 ground plan did not survive, Tassin’s description of the plan suggested changes to the building, which were duly carried out by Pieter Post from 1646 onwards (figs. 4, 5,...

  This article examines a recently discovered letter written to Stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange by his French agent Nicolas Tassin in 1628 concerning the improvement of the palace and gardens of Honselaarsdijk in the Netherlands. Although Frederik Hendrik had already started...

  Alexander Dencher

  80-99

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