Preserved fingermarks and toolmarks on a terracotta putto

Clay is an often used medium in sculpture. No wonder: wet, soft clay is malleable. That also means that it records every impression of the hands that worked with it. When fired, clay becomes a hard and water-resistant solid known as “terracotta,” which is Italian for “baked earth.” Any impression can then be preserved for centuries. Therefore, clay sculptures frequently show marks of hands and tools. The Rijksmuseum holds around 250 works in terracotta in the collection of Western sculptures. This includes a unique assortment of terracotta models made by the renowned Flemish sculptor Artus I Quellinus (1609–1668) for the Amsterdam City Hall (now the Royal Palace), as well as works modelled by Quellinus’ contemporaries Rombout Verhulst (1624–1698) and Hendrick de Keyser (1565–1621), and by the 18th-century artists Jan-Baptist Xavery (1697–1742) and Laurent Delvaux (1696 - 1778). Among the beautiful terracotta artworks housed in the Rijksmuseum collection, a good example of terracotta with well-preserved impressions is Study for a Hovering Putto (inv. no. BK-NM-9352), dated between 1735 and 1750, and attributed to Laurent Delvaux. This flying putto is partially covered with a drapery which he lifts over his head, covering the upper side of his back. The right foot is missing, probably because of a mishap. Three additional terracotta putti, which are in various positions and clinging to fragments of a drapery, are credited to the same artist. These four artworks must have been preparatory models for a larger whole, probably a monument because they are reminiscent of the putti on the epitaphs of Adriaen Vrijburgh and Ferdinand van den Eynde in the S. Maria dell’Anima in Rome, made in marble by Franois du Quesnoy (1597–1643).

On the examined Study for a Hovering Putto, there are no visible fingermarks on the face, front body, legs, or arms, which appear in finished sections. However, several friction ridge impressions can be observed on areas of the surface that look incomplete or in regions that could only have been molded with bare hands, such as the drapery on the back of the statue. These preserved impressions indicate that the maker used his palms or fingers to make the model. In particular, given that the sculpture is relatively small, and an artist would usually use the first three fingers to model clay, we assume these preserved impressions are fingermarks. Some fingermarks on the sculpture have similar breadth, thus suggesting that certain fingers or finger portions are preferentially represented during a specific molding process. The involvement of other makers cannot be excluded because a single fingerprint displays variations in ridge breadth depending on the section considered, and similar ridge breadths occur among fingerprints of different individuals. Regarding toolmarks, three different types of strokes are visible, most likely corresponding to clay modelling tools with teeth of varying width. By investigating these preserved impressions, in particular the partial fingermarks, we can try to unlock some clues about the identity of the maker, for example the sex and age.

COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY TO SEE THE INSIDE WALLS

Additional partial impressions can be found in inner voids completely hidden from view. To this end, X-rays can be used to generate images of walls inside the object. In museum settings, 3D imaging can help experts with documentation, diagnostics, digitization, and data interpretation. Computed tomography (CT) is the most useful tool for full-volume inspection, especially for difficult-to-reach areas and internal voids. When the hovering putto is CT-scanned using the machine at the FleX-ray Lab (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam), marks are found in inside walls, which cannot be seen from the outside. These marks are generally wider than those detected on the visible surface, thus perhaps suggesting that clay was particularly wet in these regions, causing wider marks. These impressions are likely human marks rather than toolmarks because pieces of clay are usually handled with hands rather than tools during the preparatory stage, whereas modelling tools are generally used more during the last stages of the carving process.

SEX AND AGE ESTIMATION

Estimating the age cluster of an artist can be useful in those cases where the master was closely working with young pupils, and more information extracted from surviving marks can add value to artworks by supporting artistic attribution. Fingermarks found on the surface of archaeological ceramics are used to ascertain the demographics (sex and age) of the makers in potting communities, even when incomplete marks are provided and neither the finger nor the section of the finger they represent can be recognized. Based on combined archaeology and forensics research that assigns age groups to makers of European ancestry from ridge breadth values, the preserved fingermarks detected on the hovering putto are estimated to belong to an adult male. This corresponds with the attribution of the model to Laurent Delvaux.

FUTURE PERSECTIVES

Now that we have found so much information about the work attributed to Delvaux, the next step is to study one of the treasures in the Rijksmuseum collection: the terracotta sculptures modelled in the atelier of Artus I Quellinus, made for the Amsterdam City Hall, now known as Royal Palace. There might be well-preserved and more complete fingermarks on several terracotta sculptures modelled in his workshop. The goal is to discover matching fingermarks among different terracotta’s, which could tell us how the artist created his masterpieces and open the possibility to authenticate attributions of undocumented artworks to the workshop of Artus I Quellinus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dzemila Sero is the Migelien Gerritzen Fellow. She studies preserved impressions on artworks, such as fingermarks and toolmarks, using advanced imaging and computational approaches. You can find ore information on the research here.

CITATION

To cite this article please use the following citation: Sero, Dzemila. A terracotta statue: Estimation of the artist’s demographics. Published 11/20/2023. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Stories: Connecting Objects, [URL], last visited: [MM/DD/YY].