Rijksmuseum reunites portrait glasses of famed author duo

The Rijksmuseum has acquired an 18th century glass goblet engraved with the portrait of one of the Netherlands most important writers, Betje Wolff. It is a matched set with a goblet bearing the portrait of Aagje Denken, her partner in writing and in life, which has been in the collection of the Rijksmuseum since 1951. Its pair was acquired from a private collection in Germany and now the two have been reunited on display.

Elisabeth Wolff-Bekker (1738–1804) and Agatha Deken (1741–1804) co-wrote The History of Miss Sara Burgerhart, the first novel written in the Dutch language. The two, already published authors, first met on October 13th, 1776, and moved in together in 1777 after the death of Betje Wolff’s husband Adriaan. They wrote together collaboratively and in 1782 published Sara Burgerhart which was an instant success. It was written in the epistolary style (as letters from the characters to each other), a genre that had vaulted to prominence a few decades earlier with the success of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. The style lends itself to realism and Wolff and Deken embraced the approach, drawing heavily on their own childhood experiences.

Politically active in the Patriot movement challenging the rule of William V of Orange as stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, the pair were were forced to flee The Hague in 1788 in the wake of the Prussian invasion of Holland to suppress the Patriot cause and restore the power of Orange. Wolff and Deken settled in Trévoux, Burgundy, and lived there for 10 years. They returned in 1797 in much reduced circumstances. The would live together in The Hague until the end of their days. Betje Wolff died on November 5th, 1804. Aagje Deken died nine days later on November 14th.

Their portrait glasses were the work of David Wolff (no relation to Betje), a glass engraver who specialized in portraits on glasses. He was the premier engraver of the 18th century Netherlands, taking the old technique of diamond-point engraving to new heights. He used the stippling engraving technique which tapped the diamond point into the glass making a dot rather than the scratching technique used to cut images and letters in traditional diamond engraving. The result is a pointillistic rendering of light and shadow via different densities of dots.

Interestingly given this history, David Wolff’s stipple-engraved subjects were usually men. The only other woman known to have received his treatment was Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, wife of Prince William V of Orange and sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia who invaded the Netherlands in response to Patriot slights against his sister. A double portrait of them attributed to David Wolff is in the Rijksmuseum, and he also made individual portraits of the Prince and Princess on wineglasses, see these in the Corning Museum of Glass, for example.

The stipple engraving is closely linked to the political struggle between patriots and Orangists at the end of the 18th century. Both sides used glasses with dotted portraits of their male heroes to toast. Dotted formal portraits of women are rare, with the exception of Wilhelmina van Prussia (1751-1820), the wife of stadtholder Willem V. Several glasses are known of the princess, only one of the burgher women Wolff and Deken. The Rijksmuseum is currently investigating whether other glass-dotted women’s portraits have also been preserved or described. It is possible that Wolff and Deken’s political convictions and their affiliation with the patriots were the reason for having these glasses made.

The glasses have now gone on display alongside the print model for the portraits. It was made by printmaker Antoine Alexandre Joseph Cardon after an original drawing by W. Neering for the frontispiece of a 1784 book of Wolff and Deken stories.

17th c. embroideries back on display after 10-year restoration

After 10 years of restoration, a set of 350-year-old embroidered bed hangings have returned to the bedroom in a Birmingham mansion where King Charles I slept in 1642. The conservation team included both professional conservators and volunteers who worked together at Birmingham Museums to clean and stabilize the rapidly decaying linen, repair holes and fix loose threads to new linen support fabric by stitching over them (couching).

The embroidered linens are in the collection of Aston Hall, a Jacobean mansion built by Sir Thomas Holte, 1st Baronet of Aston, between 1618 and 1635. King Charles honored the great house with his presence in October 1642, mere months after armed hostility with Parliamentarian had broken out. The king stopped at Aston Hall after levying troops at his temporary base in Shrewsbury, and on October 23rd, only days after the king left the comforts of Holte’s hospitality, he and the Royalist army faced the Parliamentarian army at the Battle of Edgehill, the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War.

Aston Hall was targeted directly by Parliamentarian forces in December 1643. It was subjected to cannon fire for three days before the defenders surrendered. There is still a cannonball hole in the wooden staircase.

The hangings weren’t on the bed when Charles drew Aston Hall into these momentous events. They date to the same period and hang on a bed that also dates to the same period.

Designed using a type of embroidery called crewel work, which was a particular favourite style of the Jacobean period, the embroidered bed hangings comprise two curtains, pelmets and a bed covering. They feature an exquisite Tree of Life pattern, flowers, birds, deer and a Chinese-style pavilion. The wool threads are coloured with natural dyes in shades of blue, green, yellow, orange, red and pink. Embroidered bed coverings were the preserve of only the wealthiest families in the 17th century and such sets of hangings around a bed, gave warmth and privacy.

Jane Thompson-Webb, Conservation Team Leader at Birmingham Museums said:

“It’s a major achievement welcoming these embroideries back on display at Aston Hall. Before the start of the restoration project, they were very dirty, the colours were dull, and it was obvious that the embroideries were in a fragile state and at risk of being lost forever.

“They’ve been superbly restored thanks to our dedicated team of volunteers – with their hard-work these historic embroideries and their fabulous colours, intricate scenes and delicate details have been preserved for many more years to come.”

Colonial Williamsburg acquires rare Paul Revere tankard

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has acquired a rare silver tankard made by Paul Revere, colonial America’s premier silversmith and the Revolution’s premier midnight righter. There are only about three dozen known Revere tankards. The tapering sides, midband, domed line and pinecone finial dates this one to around 1795, but researchers are still looking through Revere’s many extant record books to trace it directly back to its origins.

The silver tankard was sold at auction in May of this year for $112,500, including buyer’s premium. The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund provided the wherewithal to add this exceptional piece, one of the largest forms produced by Revere’s silver shop, to the Colonial Williamsburg museum holdings.

Colonial Williamsburg’s Revere tankard stands nearly 10 inches tall and holds 48 ounces of liquid (usually wine, ale or cider), making it weighty to lift when full. Its apparent size is enhanced by a stepped domed lid and an elongated finial. The tankard has a lighter appearance thanks to its scrolled openwork thumbpiece. It lacks engraving, which leaves the identity of the original owner a mystery. Details such as the decorative features and the substantial weight (nearly 34 troy ounces) may one day provide ownership clues through careful study of Revere’s shop records.

“Paul Revere is the best-known and most celebrated American silversmith,” said Janine E. Skerry, Colonial Williamsburg’s senior curator of metals. “A large, eye-catching object such as this tankard is a great way to connect with the public and draw both children and adults into the story of this amazing material and its role in our early history.”

The tankard will now join the other recently-acquired example of Revere silver — a small porriger made around 1765 — in the new exhibition of Colonial Williamsburg’s permanent silver collection at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

“Colonial Williamsburg has long sought a significant example of Revere’s work,” said Ronald L. Hurst, the Foundation’s Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for museums, preservation and historic resources. “With its impressive size, fine detail, and excellent condition, this tankard fills a significant void in our American silver holdings.”

House of the Muses to open to the public

The House of the Muses, a Roman imperial-era domus decorated with elaborate mosaics and wall paintings, in the ancient city of Zeugma in southeastern Turkey’s Gaziantep province, will open to the public for the first time since it was discovered in 2007.

Built in the late 1st century, the villa was expanded and redecorated in the late 2nd, early 3rd century. It was destroyed by the invading Sassanids who sacked the city in 252/3 A.D., but its spectacular mosaic floors from the villa’s later period survived in excellent condition under the rubble fill. The house is named for perhaps the most specular of the mosaics: circular portraits of the Nine Museums bordered with geometric spirals and waves. Calliope, muse of epic poetry, is in the center circle.

Another floor mosaic found in 2014 depicts the Titan Oceanus, the divine personification of the world-encircling river, and his sister/wife Tethys, mother of all the river gods. They both have wings sprouting from their foreheads, traditional attributes of the sibling spouses, and she bears a ketos, a dragon-headed snake, on her shoulder. Relatively rare in Greek iconography, the couple became a popular motif in the eastern Greek provinces of the Roman Empire between the 2nd and 4th centuries. In Zeugma, they appear in mosaics of luxury homes as symbols of marriage. The muses were also associated with marriage, as according to mythology they descended from Olympus to dance and sing at marriages of divinities/heroes like Cadmus and Harmonia and Peleus and Thetis.

Earlier this year archaeologists revealed they’d found two symmetrical rock-cut chambers under 16 meters (52 feet) of fill. Flanking the east and west sides of the central courtyard, the chambers are hypothesized to have been dining rooms used to create an indoor-outdoor space for guests during all seasons.

Stating that the ancient city of Zeugma was one of the most important cities in Anatolia, especially on the Eastern Roman border, [excavation leader Professor Kutalmış] Görkay said that the excavations in the House of Muses, which have been ongoing since 2007, provided important information about the private lives, personal preferences and identities of the inhabitants of Zeugma.

“When we look at the places and the general structure of the house, we think that Zeugma belonged to a family having better than the middle-class economy. These houses may have one or two courtyards. Courtyards are areas where air and water enter, where rainwater is collected and used as water collection basins. In these wet areas, we see more water-related scenes. The courtyards of these houses were also used for dinner parties. The courtyards were filled with water, helping the house to stay cool during hot weather. The two rock chambers found here may also have been used as dining rooms. We are currently working on reinforcement. We aim to open them to visitors as soon as possible,” he said.

Much of the ancient town was flooded when the Birecik Dam was built over the Euphrates in 2000. Out of the estimated 2,000-3,000 ancient houses in Zeugma, 25 are fully submerged now, and archaeological excavations have barely scratched the surface of what remains. The House of the Museums will be an important addition to Zeugma’s heritage attractions which feature the largest mosaic museum in the world with more than 18,000 square feet of mosaics salvaged from the city.

Freedman’s tomb with mummified remains found in Pompeii

The unique tomb of a freedman whose remains are partially mummified has been unearthed in the Porta Sarno necropolis just outside the east gate of Pompeii’s city walls. Laid to rest in the decades preceding the eruption of Vesuvius, the body is one of the best preserved ever found in Pompeii.

The tomb is a masonry walled enclosure with a triangular pediment. Traces of polychrome paint survive on the exterior. It is faded, but seems to have been a garden scene. The deceased was inhumed in a small cell behind the main façade that was so effectively sealed that organic remains were preserved, including part of one ear, his hair and numerous textile fragments.

An inscription on a marble slab embedded in the pediment identifies the deceased as Marcus Venerius Secundio, a former public slave employed as the custodian of the Temple of Venus and as an attendant of the Augustali, the order of priests dedicated to the cult of the Divine Augustus and the Julii. After he was manumitted, he came to hold prominent religious and political positions in Pompeii. He became an Augustale, joining the priesthood he had once served, and he “gave Greek and Latin ludi the lasted for four days.” There are inscriptions in Greek and of course the Roman elite spoke it, but this inscription is the first direct evidence of a spectacle in Pompeii having been staged in the Greek language.

Inhumation was a rare funerary practice for Roman adults in the 1st century. Marcus Venerius was more than 60 years old when he died. He shared the tomb with two other individuals, only they were cremated as per standard operating procedure. Two cinerary urns were found in the wider enclosure, not in his cell. One of them, a beautiful blue-green glass vessel, is identified by a columella (a stone funerary marker used in the Sarno Valley) with the name Novia Amabilis. Archaeologists believe she may have been Marcus’ wife.

The human and organic remains have been removed to Pompeii’s laboratory where they will be analyzed and conserved. Researchers hope to discover if this was deliberate mummification or a natural side-effect of the tomb’s hermetic seal.