Rommel Pot Player

1679

Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

oil on copper
17.8 x 13.8 cm
JT-101© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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How To CiteAono, Junko. "Rommel Pot Player." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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

Comparative Figures

an old man sings and plays a rommel pot. He turns his head toward theleft, in the direction of the light source, as if addressing someone outside
the pictorial space. Light illuminates his wrinkled face and gray beard,
while subtle shadows along his left shoulder and the brim of his hat
silhouette his form 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 hepainted this small copper panel in Leiden or Vienna, the painting isthematically, compositionally and technically reminiscent of his works fromthe late 1670s.[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 bladderFig 1. Frans Hals, Rommel PotPlayer, ca. 1618–22, oil oncanvas, 106 x 80.3 cm, Kimbell
Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas,
ACF 1951.01

agitates the air inside, producing sounds that mimic the low grunting of apig. Though this handmade instrument could be played throughout theyear, rommel pot playing was particularly associated with the energetic
celebration of Shrove Tuesday (Vastenavond), when children went fromdoor to door singing and dancing in exchange for money or sweets.[4] Inseventeenth-century paintings and prints of such joyful festivities, therommel pot player was often accompanied by children or other street
musicians. He was often depicted with the attributes of a fool, recalling thefolly of Carnival itself, which concludes on Shrove Tuesday. In The
Rommel Pot Player (fig 1), attributed to Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), forexample, the player, surrounded by a crowd of children, wears a hat with a[5]foxtail, a traditional attribute of the fool.

A print by Jan van de Veldeshows a rommel pot player with a similar hat, and it bears an inscriptionthat reveals his role: “At Shrovetide, many fools walk about / For farthings

Fig 2. J. Dubois after J.
Matham, Rommel-Pot Player,
engraving, 24.7 x 19 cm,
Rijksprentenkabinet,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-PBI-1959[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’spainting 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 arommel 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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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the print reads “I play a fool for the profit from this pot.”[7] However, as nocoins are seen in Toorenvliet’s painting, it is unlikely that he conceived hiswork in the same vein. More probable is that this copper panel formed partof a now lost series of the five senses, with this work depicting the sense ofhearing. Toorenvliet did, in fact, paint such a series in the late 1670s, inwhich he depicted the sense of hearing as a man singing and playing thelute.[8] The rommel pot would also have been an appropriate attribute forthe sense of hearing, perhaps for a group of lower-class personifications ofthe senses. Whether as an individual painting or part of a series,
Toorenvliet’s lively depiction of a rommel pot player still has the power tomake the spectator vividly recall the ear-splitting sounds of this folksy
instrument.
-Junko Aono

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes
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 H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), no. A89, A90; Annegret Laabs, De Leidse
Fijnschilders uit Dresden (Exh. cat. Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, StaatlicheKunstsammlungen Dresden; Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 2001),
123–25.
4. Seymour Slive, Frans Hals (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Haarlem,Frans Hals Museum) (London and Munich, 1989), 148–51; James A. Welu and Pieter
Biesboer, eds., Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans
Hals Museum; Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) (Zwolle, 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 (London, 1974), no. L3-1; idem, ed., Frans Hals (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London andMunich, 1989), no. 8.
6. “Op Vasten-avont Loopt menich Sotje / Om duytjes gnorren op ’t Rommel-potje.” F. W. H.
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; Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (London andMunich, 1989), 150–51, fig. 8c; James A. Welu and Pieter Biesboer, eds.,Judith Leyster: A
Dutch Master and Her World (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; Worcester,Worcester Art Museum) (Zwolle, 1993), 358–59. The pictorial tradition of rommel pot players
such as these must have been familiar to Toorenvliet, as the 1692 inventory of the collectionamassed by his father Abraham Toorenvliet included a painting by Dirck Druyf decribed as“one [picture of a] Shrove Tuesday fool.” For the inventory of Abraham, 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;
James A. Welu and Pieter Biesboer, eds., Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World(Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; Worcester, Worcester Art Museum) (Zwolle, 1993),© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Rommel Pot Player
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8. Susanne H. Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)(Ph.D. 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,
and the 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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. According to Isabel Horovitz, Copper as Canvas (Exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum)(Phoenix, 1999), 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 suchexcellent rigid supports for paint films.”© 2017 The Leiden Collection