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Cornelis van Beresteyn e.a.
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Acquired with financial support from various foundations from Antiquariaat Forum,'t Goy-Houten, together with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Acquisition 1998
Date 1611-1612
Size Oblong 15 x 20 cm.
Signature 79 J 30 (Rijksmuseum RP-T-1998-86)
In 1998, a concerted effort by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek resulted in an extraordinary acquisition: Anna Steyn's songbook. It was offered for sale as an 'album amicorum with watercolours' in November 1997 by Venduehuis in Zwolle. The book was featured in an episode of the Dutch version of 'Antiques Roadshow', aired on a regional channel. Once experts determined that the watercolours had been painted by renowned artists Willem Buytewech and Cornelisz Claesz. van Wieringen, the budget reserved by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek proved insufficient to purchase the manuscript. It went to a collective of several antiquarian bookshops, and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Rijksmuseum were able to purchase the work from them after a successful fundraising campaign. The illustrations are part of the Rijksmuseum collection and the songbook itself belongs to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, where it is kept.
This manuscript is an incredibly valuable cultural-historical document. The illustrations of sheep (fol. 67r. and 72r) and a winter landscape (fol.74v) were attributed to Cornelis Claesz. van Wieringen.
The signature 'WB' on the illustration on fol. 76r points to draughtsman, graphic artist and painter Willem Buytewech. This watercolour, 'De herderin Silvia' ['the shepherdess Silvia'] is his earliest dated illustration, and was included in the songbook in 1612 to illustrate a pastoral poem. This songbook is interesting in both an art-historical and literary context. Apparently, at the request of Cornelis van Beresteyn fellow students in Leiden including Baudewijn Hackius, Cornelis van der Laen and friends in Haarlem such as Theodorus Schrevelius compiled all sorts of love poems, songs, proverbs and emblematic illustrations for the young girl from Haarlem, Anna Steyn (1589-1618). An example is fol. 5r featuring a rhetorical rebus proverb: 'Dus vliegen wij [helaas] door lieffden groot// wij soucken solaas; wij vinden de dood’ ['We fly therefore through greater loves // we look for comfort, and we find death']. Using an Italian stanza from Petrarca this serves to illustrate a quote from the (then) modern collection Emblemata Amatoria by Nicolaas Heinsius.
(AL)
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