Silver jug, height 23 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland, 1619.
Adam van Vianen (1568–1627), a leading silversmith at the dawn of the Dutch Golden Age, trained as an engraver and medalist, as did his brother Paul van Vianen. Around 1590 he joined the guild – the union of silversmiths. Adam was the eldest of the brothers, he spent his whole life in his native Utrecht. His younger brother Paul Willems van Vianen worked as a jeweler at various princely European courts. Adam’s son Christian van Vianen followed in his father’s footsteps and is considered his father’s equal in skill.
Until the last quarter of the 18th century, virtually all of Adam van Vianen’s silver remained in the possession of the families for whom it was made, or with Dutch collectors. During the Napoleonic Wars, the fortunes of many European families were shaken, and family heirlooms and works of art began to be sold by wealthy English collectors. The design of the plaque in the form of a small tazza is a vivid example of the English antique taste of the first half of the 19th century. About 16 works by the English jeweler William Elliott are known, in which antique silver is used. Almost all of them are boxes with lids decorated with removable plaques.
Adam’s later work includes a series of very beautiful shallow plates adorned with figures of Bacchus, Venus, Ceres and Cupid, jars with human masks and salt shakers resting on human figures.
Silver Dolphin Pool, height 49 cm, Christian van Vianen (1600-1667), Utrecht, Holland, 1635. From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.Fragment of the reverse side of the jug signed by the author.
Not many works by Adam van Vianen have survived to this day. The lost masterpieces can be judged from descriptions in old catalogs, drawings and engravings. Thanks to Christian, the son of Adam van Vianen, who wanted to “demonstrate to the world the ingenuity and breadth of his father’s ideas” and published a series of engravings “Modelli artificiosi di vasi diversi d’argento” depicting Adam’s work, we can present these masterpieces that have sunk into obscurity. The engravings were made by Theodorus van Kessel. Each sheet of the collection is marked with the monogram of Adam van Vianen “AV”.
A 25 cm high gilded silver jug with a lid, commissioned by the Amsterdam Silversmiths Guild in 1614, Adam van Vianen dedicated it to the memory of his recently deceased brother Paulus. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Silver jug and bowl with scenes of land and sea battles during the Eighty Years’ War, jug height 52.5 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, 1625, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Two silver salt shakers with satyrs, height 26.5 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland, 1622. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Jar with scenes depicting the legend of Marcus Curtius, the legendary figure in the heroic history of Rome, height 26.5 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland, 1619. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Goblet, height 18 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, 1625. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Silver goblet with a lid, height 59.5 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, 1594 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. This goblet is the earliest known work by Adam van Vianen.Silver bowl on a stem with a figure of a reclining Bacchus, Ceres to his right and Venus with Cupid to his left, based on the painting “Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus” by Joachim Wtewal (Etewal), height 12.9 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland , 1621 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Salt shaker Flora, in the form of a flower girl carrying a basket of flowers and holding a bouquet of tulips, height 20.3 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland, 1621.Silver salt cellar “Galatea and the Sea Monster”, in the form of a flower girl carrying a basket of flowers and holding a bouquet of tulips, height 20.3 cm, Adam van Vianen, Utrecht, Holland, 1624. The salt cellar was in the collection of Lionel Rothschild and his heirs until 1937.Silver gilded bowl surmounted by the image of Triton on a dolphin, circa 1625-1630.Gilded silver plaquette with the scene “Conversion of Saul (St. Paul) on the road to Damascus”, designed as a tazza on a removable octagonal stem by Robert Hennell (London, 1842), diameter 20.4 cm, Utrecht, Holland, 1610Silver tazza with chased relief of the Old Testament scene of the Judgment of Solomon, circa 1612. Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.Sketch of jug No. 34 from the collection of engravings Modelli artificiosi di vasi diversi d’argento. Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.Salt shaker sketch from Modelli artificiosi di vasi diversi d’argento, published 1646-1652, Utrecht.
