Hermannus Collenius

This rediscovered work by Hermannus Collenius once formed part of an impressive decorative ensemble of nine paintings commissioned in 1711 for the Huis met Dertien Tempels, or House with Thirteen Temples, in Groningen, Netherlands. One of the town’s oldest remaining structures, the historic building was so-named for its original fifteenth-century Gothic screen façade that featured thirteen pinnacles, which are depicted in the present painting. After Theodorus van Brunsvelt and his wife Margaretha Emmius purchased the building in 1706, by when it had fallen into disrepair, they initiated an extensive renovation of the façade and interior. As part of this effort, the couple commissioned Collenius to decorate a room with a series of nine paintings. They comprised: six wall paintings, two overdoors, and an elaborate ceiling design.¹ Remarkably, the paintings remained in situ for nearly two centuries until their removal in 1908, when the building was sold for commercial use. Four of the wall paintings and the ceiling panel are today in the Groninger Museum, Groningen; the whereabouts of the remaining three works are unknown.²Conceived as one of two overdoors, the present work depicts a winged personification of Time with an hourglass beneath his right leg. The bearded figure holds a sickle and leans against a fallen column that sits by a crumbling brick wall. To the right, an axe is propped against a broken Corinthian capital – a symbolic representation of time’s destructive effects on architectural structures. In contrast, the present painting’s counterpart (location unknown), known from photographs taken in 1908, depicts a female figure who personifies Architecture.³ The backgrounds of both pendants feature the Huis met de Dertien Tempels. In the present painting, the building is depicted as it stood pre-1706; in the pendant, the structure is depicted with the renovated, eighteenth-century façade. Taken together, the visualization of the relationship between time and architecture offers an apt metaphor for the cyclical nature of architectural loss and renewal.

¹ For a detailed discussion of the series, see Veldman 1997, pp. 36-41, 76-84, cat nos. 25-33.

² Inv. nos. 1998.0154, 1998.0157, 1998.0156, 1998.0155, and 1998.0153.

³ Digitized in the Municipal Archives, Groningen (For the overdoor pendant, see inv. no. NL-GnGRA_1785_14005).