Artist: Thomas De Keyser
Date: 1632
Size: 220 x 351 cm
Technique: Oil On Canvas
The earliest of two civic guard pieces executed by Thomas de Keyser, and his largest portrait commission, this painting shows 16 men from District III serving under Captain Allaert Cloeck and Lieutenant Lucas Jacobsz Rotgans. It is one of the few civic guard portraits for which preparatory drawings exist, and those two drawings are the only extant ones by De Keyser (figs. a-b). One of them bears the date 27 November 1630. De Keyser probably received the commission some time earlier that year. Two events that transpired in 1630, the appointment of Allaert Cloeck as captain in District III, and the company’s transfer from the Voetboogdoelen to the Kloveniersdoelen, may have led to the commissioning of the portrait.3 The names of the sitters are listed on two trompe l’oeil pieces of paper in the lower left corner of the painting. The functions of the men within the company are not specified beside the names, but it is known from other sources who the captain, lieutenant and ensign were. Captain Allaert Cloeck stands in the centre of the composition, holding a glove and commander’s baton in his left hand. Behind him is the ensign, who was Allaert Cloeck’s younger brother, Nicolaas.4 They were the sons of the pro-Remonstrant Nanningh Florisz Cloeck, who had served as the lieutenant in District III until he was forced to resign in 1620 for criticizing the Counter-Remonstrant burgomaster, Reijnier Pauw.5 That the Remonstrant Allaert Cloeck was appointed captain in 1630 is a reflection of the new political situation in Amsterdam, in which Pauw’s Counter-Remonstrant faction was replaced in the 1620s by a Remonstrant majority. The other lieutenant to be dismissed with Nanning Florisz Cloeck in 1620, Jan Claesz van Vlooswijck, also profited from this political reversal. He was appointed captain of District IV in 1627. Van Vlooswijck’s appointment resulted in a crisis, as a few of the Counter-Remonstrant guardsmen under his command considered him an enemy of their religion.6 The appointment of Allaert Cloeck did not result in a similar crisis. In addition to Allaert and Nicolaas Cloeck, De Keyser’s civic guard piece includes four men who were Remonstrants by 1630, and two more who would join the Church in 1631 and 1648.7 Not all of the men were Remonstrants, however. One, in fact, had been a beneficiary of Pauw’s Counter-Remonstrant faction and another was related to one of its members. Standing to the right of Allaert and Nicolaas Cloeck, holding a partisan, is the company’s lieutenant, Lucas Jacobsz Rotgans. The Counter-Remonstrant Rotgans was the very man who had replaced the Cloeck brothers’ father as lieutenant in 1620. One of the burgomasters who had supported Nanningh Florisz Cloeck’s dismissal in 1620 was Jacob Gerritsz Hoyngh, who, until a few years earlier, had been captain of District III. Hoyngh’s son, Thomas, is one of the other guardsmen in the present painting. Lucas Jacobsz Rotgans, Thomas Jacobsz Hoyngh and the other Counter-Remonstrant guardsmen among the sitters had to and did accept the political realities of the time. Obviously, they were willing to serve under a Remonstrant captain and to pay to have themselves included in a group portrait of the company. Also indicative of what appears to have been Rotgans’s relaxed attitude towards religion and politics – whether imposed upon him or not – is the fact that in the 1640s he made cattle purchases with Jan Claesz van Vlooswijck.8 In addition to dealing in cattle, Rotgans had a soap business located in Op ’t Water, the present-day Damrak (no. 30), and in 1630 he was appointed Commissioner of Maritime Affairs. Rotgans later became captain of District III.9 The Cloeck brothers were also soap manufacturers by profession, having taken over their father’s business, also situated in Damrak (no. 44). Allaert Cloeck had studied at Leiden University and was elected to the city council in 1631. He held a number of civic functions, including Commissioner of Matrimonial Affairs and magistrate. In the year De Keyser finished the portrait, he was captain of a contingent sent to fight the Spanish at Nijmegen. In 1638, he was one of four captains to welcome Maria de’ Medici into Amsterdam and in 1639 he became a governor of the Voetboogdoelen. Allaert’s brother, Nicolaas Cloeck, first served as ensign in 1625 under Captain Jacob Jacobsz Hinlopen in District III.10 In the same year, and also under Hinlopen’s captaincy, he served as ensign for a contingent of Amsterdam guardsmen sent to Zaltbommel to fight the Spanish.11 Another of the men in De Keyser’s portrait, Jan Roeloffs Vogelesangh, was also part of this force, as was possibly Hendrick Colijn.12 The fourth and fifth names listed on the painting are those of Jan Roeloffs Vogelesangh and Gerrit Pietersz Schagen. Because they are listed after the names of the captain, lieutenant and ensign these men may have been the company’s two sergeants.13 Jan Roeloffs Vogelesangh was 28 years old in 1630 and Gerrit Pietersz Sc../..
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