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At the end of January, the Amsterdam Museum successfully bid for six drawings by Jan Luyken at auction house Sotheby’s in New York. The purchase was made possible thanks to a contribution from the Amsterdam Museum Society.

The drawings are preliminary studies for illustrations in the book Bloody Scene, Or Martyrs Mirror Of The Baptismal Or Defenseless Christians by Tieleman Jansz van Braght, which appeared in Amsterdam in 1685. The drawings are in good condition and have a collector’s mark showing that the drawings were once part of the CP van Eeghen collection. His extensive Luyken collection was donated to the city of Amsterdam by the children of Van Eeghen in 1907. Thanks to this donation, the Amsterdam Museum has the most important Luyken collection in the world. The purchase fit the book well Martelaersspiegel and the ten preliminary studies that the Amsterdam Museum already has in its collection.

It is not clear how the drawings ever became detached from Van Eeghen’s collection. In a sense, they have now returned home to the collection at the Amsterdam Museum.

John Luyken

Jan Luyken (1649-1712) is a unique artist in Dutch art history because of his enormous production. Together with his son Caspar Luyken (1672-1708) he produced some 4500 etchings, most of them book illustrations. Among his most famous works are the illustrations of professions in Mirror of Human Company, but certainly also the Martelaersspiegel. Luyken was a deeply religious man who became an Anabaptist at the age of 26. This is very relevant in the context of the present drawings, because the Martelaersspiegel describe the stories of Anabaptist martyrs.

Jan Luyken, object no. A 19090

Amsterdam martyrs

The six drawings show examples of Christianity or martyrdom. Of course, the two drawings with Amsterdam stories are extra attractive for the museum. They clearly show how dangerous the years before the Alteration (the transition from a Catholic to a Protestant city government) were for people of other faiths. In addition, they are a good example of how in the 17^e century was dealt with history. The martyrs were the ideal of faith in the most difficult circumstances.

Willem Jansz from Waterland and Anneken Heyndriks from Amsterdam were Mennonites. In Catholic Amsterdam before 1578 that was a mortal sin. Both were burned alive at the stake for their faith. In both drawings, Dam Square with the old town hall in the background is clearly recognizable. It is interesting to see that Luyken drew a mirror image of the town hall in his preliminary study. He did this so that it would appear lifelike on the print. Luyken must have worked from earlier depictions of the town hall, as it burned down in 1652.