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Alexander van Papenhoven

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Communion bench with putti, St Peter's Church Leuven

Alexander van Papenhoven (Antwerp, 14 July 1668 – Antwerp, 15 February 1759) was a Flemish sculptor, architect and art educator, who is best known for the Baroque church furniture which he made for the principal churches in Flanders.[1] He worked in Antwerp, Denmark and Germany, in particular in Potsdam, where he contributed to the decoration of the Palace of Sanssouci built for Frederick the Great.[2]

He played an active role in the administration of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke and the Academy of Antwerp, in an attempt to revive the arts in Antwerp.[3] His oeuvre stands at the juncture in Flemish sculpture when the flamboyance of the High Baroque gave way to Classicism which was more concerned with clarity of design.[2]

Life

Alexander van Papenhoven was born in Antwerp as the son of Cornelis and Maria Fasseur. He was baptized on 4 July 1669 in the Saint Andrew's Church of Antwerp. His father was a sculptor who specialized in puppet making. Alexander received his initial artistic training from his father. He then joined the workshop of Artus Quellinus the Younger, at the time the most prominent Flemish sculptor.[4] He probably collaborated with his master on the high altar of the St. Mary's Church in Lübeck around 1697.[1] In the guild year 1698-1699 he became a 'wijnmeester' ('wine master', a free master who was the son of an existing member) of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.[5]

Communion bench with putti, St. Michael's Church, Leuven

On 16 November 1698 he married Maria Bruynel or Bruyneel in the Saint Georges Church in Antwerp.[4] From circa 1700 he started working in Copenhagen where his master operated a workshop which was headed up by his master's son Thomas Quellinus. He must still have travelled back to Antwerp regularly as he appears in notarised documents in Antwerp in the years 1700 to 1707.[6] His wife died in 1708 and was buried on 2 June 1708.[1][4]

Angel with a ladder

He likely returned to Antwerp more permanently around 1707/8 as he took on pupils from the guild year 1707–08. He was from 1715 to 1721 a dean of the Guild.[5] In the 18th century Antwerp's standing as an artistic centre was in steep decline. The Guild experienced serious financial difficulties and the Antwerp Academy had to interrupt its art classes regularly due to lack of funds. On 2 March 1731 van Papenhoven lent 500 guilders to the Guild in Antwerp and signed a loan to the Guild on 29 July 1733.[1] By 1640 the situation had significantly deteriorated. In order to save the Academy and art education in Antwerp Alexander van Papenhoven, Jan Pieter van Baurscheit the Younger, Pieter Balthazar Bouttats, Jacob Rottiers, Marten Jozef Geeraerts and Peter Snijers signed on 17 August 1741 a deed, in which they undertook to administer and teach at the Academy free of charge. Van Papenhoven also became one of the directors of the Academy. The support of these artists permitted the Academy to raise funds from prominent personalities in the city which ensured its survival.[3]

In 1742 van Papenhoven was commissioned to make a new pulpit for the Cathedral of Antwerp, which he finished to universal acclaim.[1] Around this time a conflict arose between the Academy and the Guild over the right to give drawing classes, which were regarded by the Guild as a reliable source of income. The dispute was only settled in 1749 when the Guild renounced all its rights to control over the Academy and van Papenhoven and others were officially affirmed by the city administration as director-teachers of the Academy.[3]

Van Papenhoven trained many pupils, the best known of whom was Gaspar van der Hagen who had a successful career in London where he worked in the workshop of Flemish emigree sculptor John Michael Rysbrack. Another pupil of his who became a successful sculptor was Alexander Franciscus Schobbens, who was his godson. Other pupils include Peeter Overlaet, Augustinus op de Laye, Jacobus Brunel, Joannes-Franciscus Allefelt (Alevelt), Jan Baptist van den Her(d)t, Andreas Schuyf, Philippus Delvout, Ignatius Frans Verellen and Arnoldus-Johannes van den Bos.[1]

He died on 15 February 1759 in Antwerp.[1]

Venus and Amor

Works

Van Papenhoven was a versatile sculptor who worked in many materials including marble, wood and stucco. He created mainly church furniture, decorative architectural elements and statues. A number of his works were lost during the French occupation of the Austrian Netherlands following the French Revolution when many churches were forced to close by the occupiers and the church furniture was sold off. His work stands at the juncture in Flemish sculpture when the flamboyance of the High Baroque gave way to Classicism which was more concerned with clarity of design.[2]

Papenhoven completed many commissions in Antwerp including a wooden prie-dieu in Antwerp Cathedral and various statues of saints, biblical figures and angels in the outdoor Calvary at St. Paul's Church, Antwerp. A terracotta modello of one of these statutes is in the collection of Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. He also created marble communion benches for two churches in Leuven. In 1711 he was responsible for the high altar in the Church of our Lady in Wuustwezel, which he completed after a design by Pieter Scheemaeckers.[2]

His statue of Amor and Cupid was placed in the garden of Sanssouci in Potsdam. It was much admired and the German poet Ewald Christian von Kleist dedicated in 1749 the poem Über die Statüe der Venus an die sich Amor schmiegt (About the statue of Venus against which Cupid nestles) and a second poem to the work.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Alexander van Papenhoven at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
  2. ^ a b c d Cynthia Lawrence, Papenhoven, Alexander van (b Antwerp, 1668; d Antwerp, 1759). Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.5 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Academie van Antwerpen, bekroond in den prijskamp door de regeering der stad Antwerpen uitgeschreven, ter gelegenheid van het tweehonderdjarig bestaan der Academie van beeldende kunsten, De Vlaamsche School. Jaargang 11. J.-E. Buschmann, Antwerpen 1865 (in Dutch)
  4. ^ a b c Edward Van Even, La table de communion de l'église de Saint-Pierre a Louvain exécutée en 1707 par Alexandre Van Papenhoven d'Anvers, Bulletin des commissions royales d'art et d'archéologie, Belgique. Ministère de l'intérieur et de l'instruction publique, Belgium. Commission royale des monuments et des sites, 1884, pp. 241-257 (in French)
  5. ^ a b Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere Historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, onder Zinkspreuk: "Wy Jonsten Versaemt" afgeschreven en bemerkt door Ph. Rombouts en Th. Van Lerius, Advokaet, onder de bescherming van den raed van bestuer der koninklyke Akademie van beeldende Kunsten, van gezegde Stad, Volume 2, Antwerp, 1872, pp. 608, 613, 615, 658, 659, 669, 678, 696, 704, 710, 714, 720, 731, 748, 759 (in Dutch)
  6. ^ Godelieve van Hemeldonck, Kunst en kunstenaars, s.p.: s.n. (2007), type script kept in the Felixarchief in Antwerp, S-1187 (in Dutch)
  7. ^ Ewald Christian von Kleist, Der Frühling: und andere Gedichte, Books on Demand, 2020, p. 56 (in German)
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