BLOMMENDAEL, Jan - b. 1650 Den Haag, d. 1707 Amsterdam

Dutch sculptor. He was probably a pupil of Rombout Verhulst. He is first heard of in 1671, when he paid the Guild of St Joseph for the rights of his shop. In 1675 he joined Pictura, the Hague guild of painters; he must already have been an experienced sculptor, as he was asked to pay the highest entrance fee and was called ‘Monsieur’. Like Verhulst, he made a great number of funerary monuments, several of which have survived. They include that of Jacob de Brauw (signed and dated 1684; Ketel, Dutch Reformed Church); Admiral Johan van Brakel (signed and dated 1691; Rotterdam, Grote (St Laurens) Kerk); and Pieter de Huybert (signed and dated 1697) and J. de Huybert (signed and dated 1701; both Burg, Dutch Reformed Church). Such monuments usually consist of portraits in relief or busts, set in an architectural frame. In the case of the monument of Johan van Brakel, Blommendael used a new iconographical type, which was to become very popular in the 18th century; it had an obelisk rising out of the centre and a portrait bust or medallion placed against it.

Stadholder-King Willem III

At the end of the 17th century Louis XIV, the Sun King, set the tone for all courts in Europe. The decorative style which developed in his palace at Versailles became the model even for Willem III, the Dutch stadholder-king, the arch-rival of the French king.

Blommendael’s portrait shows Willem III as a powerful sovereign, wearing the royal ermine cape and the chain of the Order of the Garter. the stadholder-king’s clothes and his wig are in the French mode, and the whole style of this sculpture is based on French Baroque portrait sculpture.