by Christina J.A. Wansink

In 1989 Alan Chong published two pictures preserved in the Dordrechts Museum as pendants by Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp: a Paul purchased in 1987 (fig. 1) and a Peter on loan to the museum since 1935 (fig. 2).[1] The aim of the present article is to complement his contribution.

On comparing the two paintings one is immediately struck by the difference between the artist's treatment of the apostles. The relatively rough, schematic handling of Peter is particularly evident in his face, hands and clothing. Chong himself noted this discrepancy: "[...] in painting Paul, Cuyp more fully utilized his powers as a portraitist. The figure is an intense, personal characterization of an individual, whereas Peter's is a far more generalized, almost stereotypically maudlin visage."[2]

The existence of a second version of Peter, likewise signed "JG [interlaced] Cuyp" and dated 1627 (fig. 3), complicates matters. Virtually the same size as the Dordrecht version, it was in a private collection in Malmö in 1967, when the owner contacted the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague. Like the Dordrecht canvas, it shows Peter with folded hands, seated under a portico with a view into the distance. In both works a thick book (the Old Testament) lies on his key next to him and there are chickens in the background, accompanying the rooster that alludes to Peter's betrayal.

1. Jacob Cuyp, Paul at his Desk, signed and dated 1627. Canvas, 72.5 x 100 cm. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum


2. Jacob Cuyp, Peter Repentant, signed and dated 1627. Canvas, 71.2 x 99.4 cm. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum

In my opinion the execution of the Swedish Peter has much more in common with that of the Paul in Dordrecht than does its companion in the museum. The artist uses light and shadow to model the figure's face and hands with far greater subtlety. The intensely sorrowful figure of the Malmö canvas, shown contemplating his sin, displays much more character than his rather sentimental namesake in Dordrecht. The latter is not a replica of the Swedish work, as their compositions differ significantly, especially in the position of the figure's head. In the Malmö version the apostle is represented almost in profile as an introspective, mournful sinner, while the face of the Dordrecht Peter is turned further toward the beholder, thus involving him more directly in his grief. He casts his eyes heavenward, a pose described in Ripa's Iconologia as typical of Penitenza.[3] Though he does not seem to focus on someone in the same space as the viewer, as Paul appears to do, his countenance has a poignant message for the viewer nonetheless. The stylistic parallels between the Swedish Peter and the Dutch Paul notwithstanding, the composition of the Dordrecht Peter makes it a much better candidate - if, in fact, the Paul did have a pendant.

3. Jacob Cuyp, Peter Repentant, signed and dated 1627. Canvas, 74 x 98 cm. Malmö, private collection, 1967

As regards the different styles of the two Dordrecht paintings, it is interesting that two unknown pendants by Jacob Cuyp which reappeared in 1989 must have originated at the same time as Peter and Paul: a monogrammed Democritus and a Heraclitus (figs. 4 and 5). Both pictures were sold at Christie's in London on 31 March 1989 as "Circle of Jan Tengnagel;" correctly reattributed, they are now in the Caretto Gallerie in Turin.[4] The philosopher Democritus, who laughs at the world, and his colleague Heraclitus, who weeps at it, are shown here not with their customary terrestrial globe, but with an unmarked sphere surmounted by a cross. Cuyp's handling of the subject thus resembles the two earliest Dutch representations of these wise men in paint, by Cornelis van Haarlem. When Albert Blankert published his extensive study of this theme in 1967, seventeenth-century prints of the two philosophers with this time-honored attribute were known, but no other paintings.[5] As in Cornelis's treatments of the subject, the cross in Cuyp's is also awry, a token of "the crooked world."