Aeneas and Callisto

Josephina De Fouw,Ige Verslype

doi:10.52476/trb.9730

Abstract

The Rijksmuseum has in its collection an oil sketch by Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) of a design for a ceiling painting. This ceiling painting – The Apotheosis of Aeneas – was commissioned by Pieter Pels (1668-1739) for his house at number 479 Herengracht, Amsterdam. The present article identifies the room for which the work was made. The ceiling painting proves to have been part of a larger painted ensemble by Jacob de Wit and the landscape painter Isaac de Moucheron (1667-1744). On the basis of De Wit’s sketches, records in the archives and research on site, a picture of the way this painted room looked in Pels’s day is built up. The later fortunes of the room are also explored. At the end of the nineteenth century the ceiling painting was replaced by another one, also by De Wit. As a result of this very curious switch, the present ceiling painting is no longer an original whole, but a composite hybrid. All the other interior paintings vanished from the room long ago. Three of them, a chimney-piece and two overdoors by De Wit, have been traced to Russia. Three previously unknown paintings have now been added to the artist’s oeuvre.

Highlights

I f, in the first half of the eighteenth century, you wanted to decorate the interior of your Amsterdam canalside mansion or your country house with painted wall hangings and ceiling paintings, you would turn to Jacob de Wit (1695-1754)
The oil sketch will be linked to ceiling paintings that are in the house
Designs for Pieter Pels The oil sketch in the Rijksmuseum depicts the apotheosis of Aeneas

Summary

Introduction

Aeneas and Callisto: Two Ceiling Paintings by Jacob de Wit Mixed Up I f, in the first half of the eighteenth century, you wanted to decorate the interior of your Amsterdam canalside mansion or your country house with painted wall hangings and ceiling paintings, you would turn to Jacob de Wit (1695-1754). In this article we form a picture of the room for which De Wit made the ceiling painting.

Results

Conclusion