Godaert Kamper

This portrait of a lady, signed by the Düsseldorf-born Godaert Kamper, is significant due to its inclusion of a signed instrument by one of the most renowned makers of the seventeenth century.

The single-manual harpsichord, containing the traditional 45 keys with a short octave, bears the name of Ioannes Ruckers (1578–1642).¹ Described as 'probably the greatest of the members of the harpsichord and virginal building family', Ioannes was one of the most celebrated keyboard instrument makers of Antwerp and the entirety of Northern Europe.² From 1616 until his death he was the organ and harpsichord builder to the archducal court in Brussels and his princely instruments made their way to collectors across the continent. His later duties also included the tuning and maintenance of the organ in Antwerp Cathedral.

The instrument depicted in this painting bears the typical decoration which embellishes many instruments by the Ruckers family (fig. 1). This includes block printed paper decoration featuring arabesques, sea-horse/ dolphin patterns and motifs in the interior case walls and keywell. Decoration on the side of the keyboard, embellished with painted marbling, is also a feature of instruments of the highest quality during this era. The lower and upper lids of the instrument also bear painted mottos. These are almost certainly representations of 'SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI' ('Thus passes the glory of the world') and 'ACTA VIRUM PROBANT' ('Actions Prove the Man'). These moralising themes are not only in tune with art of the Dutch Golden Age, but also point towards the ambiguous subject matter of the painting. The sitter's invitation to make music, as suggested by her pose and the three- rather than two-stave music score (suggesting a duet), might be linked to music's well-known symbolic associations with love.

Although instruments of the Ruckers-type are found in paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan Steen, Gabriel Metsu and Jan Miense Molenaer, the intentional appearance of Ioannes Ruckers' name on the instrument appears to be a unique feature of this painting.³ This suggests that this keyboard was a cherished item of the sitter and her family and worthy of special attention within this portrait. Possibly the most famous work of art to feature a keyboard instrument of the Ruckers type is Johannes Vermeer's Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman preserved in the Royal Collection.⁴

It seems that full-length figures with musical instruments on a small scale was a compositional type favoured by Kamper. A portrait of a young man tuning a violin, with a similar map in the background bearing the artist's signature, is preserved in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.⁵ A similar portrait of a man plucking the string of a viola da gamba is in the collection of the Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf.⁶ Another half-length portrait of a lady at a virginal, which appears to be of a more generic type not by Ruckers, appeared on the art market in 1993.⁷

We are grateful to Dr Timothy De Paepe for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

¹ Although multiple virginals and several double-manual harpsichords by Ioannes Ruckers have survived, relatively few single-manual instruments by the maker seem to have been preserved. Two remain in the collection of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin; one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; another in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh; and another (although heavily altered) is in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Neuchâtel. For a full list of these see G.G. O'Brien, Ruckers: a Harpsichord and Virginal Building Tradition, vol. 3, unpublished dissertation, Edinburgh 1983, pp. 659, 679, 687, 690 and 696.

² O'Brien 1983, p. 20.

³ J.M. Ortega Calderón, Todo el Prado, Madrid 1996, p. 540, no. 1592. https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-sense-of-hearing/074adedf-40f0-476f-b132-fe450e71e0f3; C. Baker and T. Henry (eds), The National Gallery, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 1995, p. 642, NG 856 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-steen-a-young-woman-playing-a-harpsichord-to-a-young-man; C. Baker and T. Henry 1995, p. 451, NG 839 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/gabriel-metsu-a-man-and-a-woman-seated-by-a-virginal; D.P. Weller, Jan Miense Molenaer, Painter of the Dutch Golden Age, exh. cat., Manchester 2003, pp. 133–38, no. 23. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?q=Jan+Miense+Molenaer&p=1&ps=12&st=Objects&ii=6#/SK-C-140,6.; For the most recent treatment on the subject on Keyboard Instruments in paintings see T. De Paepe and H. Van de Velde (eds), Keyboard Instruments, Virginals, Harpsichords and Organs in Paintings of the 16th and 17th Centuries, exh. cat., Antwerp 2022.

⁴ C. White, The Dutch Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1982, pp. 143–45, no. 230. https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/405346/lady-at-the-virginals-with-a-gentleman

⁵ http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/11282/man-aged-twenty-tuning-a-violin?ctx=8cb9a5f5-0834-4b63-a340-11d3c260e82e&idx=0

⁶ https://imagesdelamusique.tumblr.com/post/18462525052/godaert-kamper-161317-1679-portrait-of-a

⁷ Sold Bonhams, London, 9 December 1993, lot 86 (as Godaert Kamper).