Sculpted in relief and consisting of more than twenty blocks of stone.

There is some erosion and cracking. A painting representing the dove of the Holy Spirit with rays of light emanating from it was probably removed from the cartouche during the French Era. Some rays are still partially visible.

Commissioned by the Burgerweeshuis for the gable of 71 Kalverstraat, Amsterdam, 1725;¹¹Uitgavenboek Burgerweeshuis, see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 194. sold, with the building to the firm H. Pander en Zonen, Amsterdam, 1886; removed from the gable and placed indoors, 1886; donated to the museum, and inserted in the outer north wall of the Drucker-Fraser extension, 1911

Object number: BK-BFR-277

Credit line: Gift of H. Pander & Zonen

From 1725 to 1886 this relief formed the top of the façade of what is currently 71 Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. At the start of the sixteenth century the first Amsterdam City Orphanage (Burgerweeshuis) was established there.²²For the history of the Amsterdam City Orphanage, see R. Meischke, Amsterdam: Burgerweeshuis, The Hague 1975. Around 1580, lack of space necessitated moving the orphans across the street, to the premises of the Sint-Luciënklooster (currently the Amsterdam Museum). The building in Kalverstraat was still owned by the orphanage and after the move the governors rented it out to De Keizerskroon, an inn which remained at that address until 1886. Earlier, in 1725, an entirely new building, paid for by the orphanage, was erected to replace the old one. The Amsterdam city authorities instructed the orphanage to place a ‘decorative façade’, because it was situated ‘in the middle of the city and the most considerable part of the passage’.³³I.H. van Eeghen, ‘“De Keizerskroon” een optisch bedrog’, Amstelodamum 56 (1969), pp. 162-68, esp. 163. The City Orphanage’s regular sculptor, the acclaimed artist Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732) was approached for the façade ornament. The orphanage’s expenditure records state, for 1725: ‘[paid] to Ignatius van Logteren for the stone carving in the top of the façade of the Kyserskroon, in accordance with specifications, together with Exterior work and also the Cartouche 12 Sept: on acc. f. 430 14 Nov. on acc. f. 400 = 830 [guilders] together’.⁴⁴aan Ignatius van Logteren voor het Stene beeldwerk boven in de gevel van de Kyserskroon volgens bestek mitsgaders voor Buytewerk en ook de Cardoenzen 12 Sept: op reek(ening) f. 430 14 nov. op reek(ening) f. 400 = 830 (gulden) te samen Orphanage Expenditure records, quoted from P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 194. From this we can deduce that Van Logteren not only supplied the relief, but also the surrounding arch, the cornice including corbels, corner pilasters and the door elements.⁵⁵P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 194. The entire ornament is depicted in a drawing made in 1886 by J.M.A. Rieke (fig. a) just before the new owner, the Pander company, converted the building into a furniture store. The façade was again given a drastic make-over. The relief was removed and put inside the store. In 1911 Pander donated it to the Rijksmuseum, which placed it in the outer north wall of the Drucker-Fraser extension.

For the top of the façade Van Logteren used the trefoil arch which he had developed and also applied at 539 Herengracht and 158 Warmoesstraat, and in the same year at 64 Rokin (‘The Moor’).⁶⁶P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, figs. 126, 161 and 187. The relief depicts two orphans: a reference to the building’s owner (the City Orphanage) and its original purpose. The boys are leaning against a cartouche framed with S-volutes in Louis XIV style, acanthus leaves and topped with a palmette. Today the cartouche is as good as unadorned, though a few rays on the surface confirm that it originally contained a painted dove of the Holy Spirit with rays emanating from it: the standard emblem of almshouses and orphanages. The representation was most probably removed during the French Era, when enlightened minds took offence at such religious subject matter.⁷⁷P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 195.

A smaller terracotta version of the fronton exists. It was incorporated in 1737 in a richly decorated board with the escutcheons and names of the regents of the City Orphanage, made by Ignatius’ son, Jan van Logteren (1709-1745) (fig. b). Previous authors assumed that Jan had copied his father’s work for this version.⁸⁸M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, no. 234; R. Baarsen et al., Rococo in Nederland, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, no. 99. However, as Fischer put forward in 2005, it is also possible that it was the original bozzetto that Ignatius had made in 1725 in preparation for the stone relief.⁹⁹P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 195. The modelling style is indeed more reminiscent of the father. Regardless of who made the piece, the white dove of the Holy Spirit adorning the cartouche of the terracotta confirms that the motif was also part of the present version.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 366; R. Meischke, Amsterdam: Burgerweeshuis, The Hague 1975, p. 13; P.M. Fischer, ‘Flora en Bacchus en de beeldhouwers Van Logteren’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 30 (1982), pp. 3-6, pp. 3, 6; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 193-95, 426-27

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Ignatius van Logteren, Gable Stone with a Cartouche Flanked by Two Orphan Boys, Amsterdam, 1725', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200116917