Sculpted in relief.

Venus’ hand and the apple in it might have been renewed.

…; sale collection G.F. Bakels (†), villa ‘De Snip’, Laren, at the premises (Paul Brandt), 25-27 May 1955, no. 66, fl. 510.50, to the museum

Object number: BK-1955-44

The composition of this delicate marble relief is loosely based on Noël Nicolas Coypel’s (1690-1734) painting The Alliance Between Bacchus and Venus of 1726, currently housed in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva (fig. a).¹¹J. Delaplanche, Noël-Nicolas Coypel (1690-1734), Paris 2004, no. P. 34. This popular composition, of which at least three painted copies exist, was faithfully depicted in an engraving (though in mirror image) by Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783) shortly after 1740. The verse²²L’Alliance de Bacchus et de Venus. / Joignez-vous à Bacchus, Déesse de Cithère, / Modérez ses excès par vos doux sentiments; / Qu’il employe à son tour son nectar salutaire / A calmer l’ardeur des amants / Bientost de l’âge d’Or revivera l’innocence, / On ne blamera plus ni le vin ni vos feux, / Et l’on sera charmé de voir que de vous deux/ Puisse naître la tempérance. at the bottom of this print explains the unusual iconography of the representation, the literary roots of which are found in the Latin aphorism Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus (without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would freeze). However, Coypel omitted Ceres and in her stead depicted fairly explicitly that the pleasures of intoxication (wine: Bacchus) and of the flesh (love: Venus) go well together.

The sculptor of the relief appropriated the composition of the main scene with Venus filling Bacchus’ glass, including two ‘kissing’ birds below right, quite literally from Coypel’s painting. However he omitted the Three Graces on the right in the background, the panther at Bacchus’ feet and the hovering angels above the pair of gods. In addition, the wineglass in Venus’ missing hand has been exchanged for an apple, but this renewed item might not be a reflection of the original attribute. The painting’s rococo style is translated into an early variant of Neo-Classicism, evident in the ‘Roman’ profiles of the faces, for instance. The marble relief, with its gastronomic and amorous theme, would be fitting for both a dining room or a boudoir, as an independent piece or as a component of a mantelpiece for example.

The relief was acquired by the museum in 1955 at the sale of the estate of G.F. Bakels, who commissioned the building of the villa ‘De Snip’ in Laren in 1924.³³In the sale catalogue the representation was incorrectly identified as Amor and Psyche, see sale collection G.F. Bakels (†), villa ‘De Snip’, Laren, at the premises (Paul Brandt), 25-27 May 1955, no. 66. Leeuwenberg considered the work to be a rare example of an eighteenth-century Northern-Netherlandish sculpture ‘in which the decorative element dominates’, but refrained from giving any attribution.⁴⁴waarin het decoratief element overheerst, see Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1955, p. 15. At the time Leeuwenberg incorrectly identified the representation as Bacchus and Ariadne, which he corrected in the 1973 catalogue, after discovering the connection with Coypel’s painting, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 425. A suitable candidate for authorship would be Willem Hendrik van der Wall (1716-1790). Although this Utrecht sculptor initially imitated the Flemish-French baroque style of his teachers Jacob Cressant (1685-after 1759/before 1766) and Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742), he switched in the course of the 1770s to the contemporary classicist, academic sculpture of Paris, with which this work is very consistent. Van der Wall could have been familiar with Coypel’s composition though his French teacher Jacob Cresssant. He also could have used Le Bas’ engraving, but this is less likely since the scene on the relief is not mirrored like this print.

Examples from Van der Wall’s oeuvre with stylistic parallels include the marble salon statuettes Hope (1778) and Galatea (1782), both in the Centraal Museum Utrecht.⁵⁵J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, nos. 379 and 380. Furthermore, Venus’ physiognomy, with a long, straight nose, narrowed eyes and round chin line exhibit striking similarities with those of the female figures in Van der Wall’s terracotta groups Faith, Hope and Love (cf. BK-NM-9278). Although they are replicas which the artist made around 1775 after sculptural work he made twenty years earlier still in baroque style,⁶⁶That certainly applies to Love (or Charity), which is a variant of a somewhat smaller example in the Centraal Museum Utrecht dating from 1755, see J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, no. 378. the differences in physiognomy evince the stylistic development the artist had undergone in the meantime.

Bieke van der Mark, 2026

Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1955, p. 15; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 425

B. van der Mark, 2026, 'attributed to Willem Hendrik van der Wall, The Alliance Between Bacchus and Venus, Utrecht, c. 1775 - c. 1785', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035866