Artwork
The Superintendents of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, 1683
The Superintendents of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, 1683 is an unspecified painting by the Baroque artist Jacob Adriaensz Backer. It is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
History & Provenance
Adriaen Backer's 1683 group portrait, The Superintendents of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
The Superintendents of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, 1683 was commissioned as a group portrait for the Amsterdam medical college, reflecting the institutional role of medical governance in the Dutch Republic during the late 17th century. It was painted by Adriaen Backer in 1683, depicting the college's superintendents in a formal composition characteristic of Dutch group portraiture. The work was later acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it remains part of the collection, having entered the museum's holdings through a bequest or donation following its creation.
The painting exemplifies the Baroque style and genre of portraiture prevalent in Amsterdam during this period, with Backer emerging as a leading portraitist influenced by his uncle Jacob Adriaensz Backer and trained in the artistic milieu of Amsterdam and Rome.
Adriaen Backer's 1683 group portrait, The Superintendents of the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam, is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This attribution to the Amsterdam museum is confirmed by Spanish-language sources detailing the artist's major works.
The provided sources do not specify a unique inventory or accession number for this specific painting. Furthermore, no information regarding the work's exhibition history, past loans, or specific display locations within the museum is available in the given texts.
Context
Adriaen Backer was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter active in Amsterdam and Haarlem, working within the Baroque tradition of the Northern Netherlands. He was probably trained by his uncle, the painter Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, and spent time in Italy before settling in Amsterdam, where he married in 1669.
His oeuvre centered on portraits and group portraits, particularly regentenstukken (regents' group pieces) and historical allegories for civic commissions, a category into which the 1683 Collegium Medicum group portrait falls directly.
Houbraken singled out Backer's Last Judgement for the Amsterdam City Hall (now the Royal Palace) as one of his finest works, signaling contemporary recognition of his ambitious civic commissions. Among his pupils was the Polish painter Christoffel Lubienitski, who trained under him in the 1670s. Works by Backer are held by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Museum, Frans Hals Museum, Boijmans Van Beuningen, the British Museum, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, and the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, placing his production firmly within the canon of Dutch group portraiture.
Overview
The work is a seventeenth‑century group portrait depicting the members of Amsterdam’s Collegium Medicum, the municipal body responsible for supervising the quality of medicines. Rendered in oil on canvas, the composition shows seven figures in dark robes gathered around a table strewn with documents, while a single individual stands apart holding a ledger. The setting includes a wall adorned with modest classical motifs.
Subject & Meaning
The seated men represent the physicians Egbertus Veen, Bonaventura van Dortmont and Joan Verwout, together with the apothecaries Johannes de Vriest, his son, and Jacobus Danckertsz de Ry, while the standing figure is the guild clerk Sieuwert van Duynen. The inclusion of Apollo and a goddess on the background wall alludes to the classical ideals of healing and learned authority that underpinned the board’s function.
Technique & Style
Executed in the Dutch Baroque idiom, the painting employs a restrained palette of blacks and earth tones, emphasizing the sober attire of the officials. Light falls gently across the table, highlighting the papers and books that suggest the administrative nature of their work. The figures are rendered with careful attention to individual facial features, a hallmark of Dutch group portraiture of the period.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jacob Adriaensz Backer (1608 – 27 August 1651) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He produced about 140 paintings in twenty years, including portraits, religious subjects, and mythological paintings. In his style, he was…
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