Rommel Pot Player
Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)1679
oil on copper
17.8 x 13.8 cm
JT-101© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Rommel Pot Player” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/the-rommel-pot-player/ (archivedMay 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and tattered clothing with visible patchwork, anComparative Figures

old man sings and plays a rommel pot. He turns his head toward the left, inthe direction of the light source, as if addressing someone outside thepictorial space. Light illuminates his wrinkled face and gray beard, while
subtle shadows along his left shoulder and the brim of his hat silhouette hisform against an undefined background. Jacob Toorenvliet painted this lifelike
depiction of an old musician in 1679, the year in which he returned to his
native Leiden after a long stay in Vienna.[1] Whether he painted this small
copper panel in Leiden or Vienna, the painting is thematically,
compositionally and technically reminiscent of his works from the late1670s.[2] For example, in 1678 he had used a similar bearded model in two
comparable half-length depictions of a hurdy-gurdy player.[3]The rommel pot was a crude musical instrument made of an earthenware jar
covered with a pig’s bladder. The stick that punctures the bladder agitates

Fig 1. Frans Hals, Rommel Pot
Player, ca. 1618–22, oil oncanvas, 106 x 80.3 cm, Kimbell ArtMuseum, Fort Worth, Texas, ACF
1951.01

the air inside, producing sounds that mimic the low grunting of a pig. Though
this handmade instrument could be played throughout the year, rommel pot
playing was particularly associated with the energetic celebration of Shrove
Tuesday (Vastenavond), when children went from door to door singing anddancing in exchange for money or sweets.[4] In seventeenth-century
paintings and prints of such joyful festivities, the rommel pot player was often
accompanied by children or other street musicians. He was often depictedwith the attributes of a fool, recalling the folly of Carnival itself, whichconcludes on Shrove Tuesday. In The Rommel Pot Player (fig 1), attributed© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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to Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), for example, the player, surrounded by acrowd of children, wears a hat with a foxtail, a traditional attribute of thefool.[5] A print by Jan van de Velde shows a rommel pot player with a similarhat, and it bears an inscription that reveals his role: “At Shrovetide, manyfools walk about / For farthings [they] grunt on a rommel pot.”[6]The figure in this picture is depicted neither as a fool nor accompanied by
festive children, and thus it is unlikely that Toorenvliet conceived his workwithin this well-established iconographic tradition. Other traditions, however,
did exist for depictions of rommel pot players, and Toorenvliet’s painting
may belong to one of those. For example, a print by J. Dubois after J.
Matham (fig 2), which depicts a half-length old man playing a rommel pot,
makes it quite clear that this musician’s motivation for playing was financial
gain: coins lie on the table before him and the inscription on the print reads “Iplay a fool for the profit from this pot.”[7] However, as no coins are seen in

Fig 2. J. Dubois after J.
Matham, Rommel-Pot Player,engraving, 24.7 x 19 cm,
Rijksprentenkabinet,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-PBI-1959

Toorenvliet’s painting, it is unlikely that he conceived his work in the samevein. More probable is that this copper panel formed part of a now lost seriesof the five senses, with this work depicting the sense of hearing. Toorenvliet
did, in fact, paint such a series in the late 1670s, in which he depicted thesense of hearing as a man singing and playing the lute.[8] The rommel pot
would also have been an appropriate attribute for the sense of hearing,perhaps for a group of lower-class personifications of the senses. Whether
as an individual painting or part of a series, Toorenvliet’s lively depiction of arommel pot player still has the power to make the spectator vividly recall theear-splitting sounds of this folksy instrument.

- Junko Aono, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Rommel Pot PlayerPage 4 of 6Endnotes

1. For biographic information on Toorenvliet’s life, see Piet Bakker’s biography of the artist in
this catalogue.
2. In particular, the depiction of a man in half-length close to the picture plane, the refined
rendering of light and texture, and the brownish palette with grey tones enlivened by whiteand red accents echo his paintings from earlier in the decade.
3. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), no. A89, A90; Annegret Laabs in The
Leiden Fijnschilders from Dresden, ed. Christiaan Vogelaar (Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk
Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2000), 123–25.
4. Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London,
Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London, 1989), 148–51; Pieter
Biesboer and James A. Welu, eds., Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World (Exh. cat.
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) (New Haven, 1993),
358–60; and Karel Moens and Iris Kockelbergh, Muziek & Grafiek: Burgermoraal en muziek
in de 16de- en 17de-eeuwse Nederlanden (Exh. cat. Antwerp, Hessenhuis) (Antwerp, 1994),
125, 130–31, figs. 87c, 88.
5. Seymour Slive, Frans Hals, 3 vols. (New York, 1970–74), no. L3-1; idem, ed., Frans
Hals (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts;
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Munich, 1989), no. 8.
6. “Op Vasten-avont Loopt menich Sotje / Om duytjes gnorren op ’t Rommel-potje.” FriedrichWilhelm Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, ca. 1450–1700(Roosendaal, 1989), 33, 34, no. 132. See also Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Haarlem, FransHals Museum) (London, 1989), 150–51, fig. 8c; Pieter Biesboer and James A. Welu, eds.,
Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum;Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) New Haven, 1993), 358–59. The pictorial tradition ofrommel pot players such as these must have been familiar to Toorenvliet, as the 1692
inventory of the collection amassed by his father Abraham Toorenvliet included a painting by
Dirck Druyf decribed as “one [picture of a] Shrove Tuesday fool.” For the inventory ofAbraham, see Bakker’s biography on Toorenvliet in this catalogue.
7. “K’ speel voor Sot, om ’t genot van dees Pot.” F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings,Engravings and Woodcuts, ca. 1450–1700 (Roosendaal, 1989), 6:6, no. 2; Pieter Biesboer
and James A. Welu, eds., Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World (Exh. cat. Haarlem,Frans Hals Museum; Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) (New Haven, 1993), 358, 360, fig.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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8. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), nos. A70–72, B116–120.

ProvenancePossibly collection of Mrs Stanley, Tavistock.
(Sale, Bonhams, London, 20 April 2005, no. 1; [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London, 2005]).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular sheet of copper with minor undulations, has substantial weight anddoes not flex when handled.[1] All four sides of the support bow outward toward the midpoints, andthe corner angles are greater than 90 degrees. There are two layers of oxidation products, acontinuous brown layer and mottled black spots. A rectangular patch of adhesive residue
suggests the location of a previous label, and a numerical inscription is visible under infrared, butthere are no wax collection seals, stencils or maker’s marks.
A light gray ground has been thinly and evenly applied predominantly with long vertical strokes.
The paint has been extremely smoothly applied with delicate modeling and small flecks of whitehighlights along the figure’s proper right cuff and sleeve.
The painting is signed and dated in light paint along the upper right corner.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. A few
compositional changes visible in the images and as pentimenti include a modification to thefigure’s gaze. In the images, the figure’s proper right pupil and iris appear rounder and moresimilar to those of his left eye and his gaze appears more symmetrical. The figure’s proper left
ear was added during the paint stage and the top of his hat has been widened along the left tocreate a more square, flat top.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2005 and remains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. According to Isabel Horovitz, Copper as Canvas (Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum) (Phoenix,© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Rommel Pot Player
Page 6 of 61999), 67–68, “a highly worked sheet of copper will be less flexible than one that is not highly
worked, and this is why quite thin (0.5 mm) sheets of copper can provide such excellent rigid
supports for paint films.”© 2020 The Leiden Collection