Still Life with Flower Vase, Insects and a Squirrel, Dutch Baroque slate panel with engraving, inlaid mother of pearl, bone and ornamental stone, by Dirck van Rijswijk, h. 23.5 cm, circa 1660 70. This mother-of-pearl panel is a magnificent example of the impressive intarsia work of the Dutch master Dirck van Rijswijk (1596-1679), whose works adorn the collections of the world’s greatest museums: the Metropolitan in New York, the Victoria and Albert in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the State Hermitage Museum.
Dirck van Rijswijck was born in Cleve in 1596, little is known about his early life, and he may have trained as a goldsmith in his home town. In 1620 he went to Antwerp and worked for the goldsmith Denis van Zele. He is known in 1926 to have remade a ring for Isabella Brant, the wife of Peter Paul Rubens. In the late 1620s or early 1630s he moved to Amsterdam, where he created his most famous works and where he lived for the rest of his life. His work was widely admired, but he apparently had no apprentices, and so this form of inlay of such a high standard is associated only with his name.
Mosaic painting Flower Garland, inlaid with mother of pearl, 77×73 cm, Dirck van Rijswijk, 1667, from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum.
To all this, I would like to add another feature of Dirk van Rijswijk’s work – the similarity of his flower compositions to the works of artists of the “golden age” of Dutch painting. Personally, his works remind me of the paintings of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621), who is recognized as one of the first artists to create the flower still life (bloemsstilleven) as an independent genre.
Still life with flowers, ebony and mother of pearl, Dirck van Rijswijk, h. 38.7 cm, circa 1660, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Panel depicting a monkey, snail and fruit under a flower garland, inlaid with mother of pearl, Dirck van Rijswijk, 18 x 15 cm, circa 1671, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.Table with slate top inlaid with mother of pearl, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 81 cm, circa 1650 1660, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.Panel of Lydian stone inlaid with mother of pearl and marble, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 23 cm, 1671, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.Panel depicting a vase with flowers, a monkey and a snail, inlaid with mother of pearl and marble, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 17.6 cm, 1667, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.‘Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase’, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, 1612, Bijbels Museum, Amsterdam.Flowers in a Vase, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, 1609, KHM, Vienna.Still life with flowers, oak inlaid with mother of pearl and breccia, Dirck van Rijswijk, 87 x 62.5 cm, 1654, from the collection of the Grünes Gewölbe Museum, Dresden.Still Life with Flowers, marble inlaid with mother of pearl and breccia, Dirck van Rijswijk, h. 16 cm, 1662, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Depicting a vase with flowers, butterflies and a beetle, inlaid with mother of pearl and marble, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 24 cm, second half of the 17th century.Panel with a flower vase and a parrot, inlaid with mother of pearl and marble, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 17.5 cm, circa 1673.Panel with a flower wreath and a parrot, inlaid with mother of pearl, Dirck van Rijswijk, height 27 cm, circa 1660.Parrot and vanitas attributes, inlaid with mother of pearl, lapis lazuli and coral, Dirck van Rijswijk, 61 x 90 cm, circa 1660.Panel with a flower vase and a monkey, inlaid with mother of pearl and marble, Dirck van Rijswijck, height 17.6 cm, 1667, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum.Panel depicting a flower garland above a table with a vase and a squirrel, inlaid with mother of pearl, ivory and marble, Dirck van Rijswijck, 24 x 21 cm, circa 1670.