Page 30 - A Time and A Place Catalogue, Jorge Welsh

→ These riots were celebrated in newspapers,
prints and poems, as for example, in a contempo­
raneous print published by Pieter Jooste showing
several images of the event, as can be seen in the
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.2 This event was also
portrayed on a medal, which is the source for
this plate (fig. 10). The medal is inscribed
‘UBI INTERFICERE FAS EST. IBI DESTRUERE’
[Where it is permitted to kill, it is also permitted
to destroy] and ‘IAC: SUYLE A NYEVELT PRAET:/
ROTT: DOMI DESTRUCTIO. / D. 6 OCTOB: 1690’
[The destruction of the home of the Rotterdam
head bailiff Jacob Zuylen van Nyevelt October 6,
1690].

The medal was struck by Jan Smeltzing (1656-1693) FIG. 10
in pewter, silver and gold.3 Smeltzing was a Dutch
medallist, who studied as an engraver under his
father. He worked mainly in Leiden, but after
designing several politically charged medals,
of which the Rotterdam Riots is an example,
he fled to France. He is thought to have worked
for Leopold I (1640-1705), Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire, King of Hungary and Croatia and
of Bohemia, King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715),
King James II of England (1633-1701) and William
III (1650-1703), Prince of Orange and King of
England.4

The other side of Smeltzing’s medal shows ‘Rotterdam Riots’ scenes, painted on Chinese Fig. 10
the severed head of Kosterman resting on porcelain, show slight variations, with some
a plinth inscribed ‘C COSTERMA CAESA examples painted with more houses than others, Jan Smeltzing (1656-1693),
CERVIX ROTTERDAMI D XVI SEPT MDCXC’ and the quality of the design also differing.6 Some Penning op de plundering van
[C Costerman neck severed September 16, 1690 are painted on the reverse with the apocryphal het huis van Baljuw mr. Jacob
Rotterdam], surrounded by two quotes from the marks of the Chenghua (1465-1487) or Tianqi van Zuylen van Nijevelt aan de
works of Virgil: ‘QUID MEMOREM INFANDAS (1621-1627) periods, while others show emblems Leuvehaven te Rotterdam
CAEDAS, QUID FACTA TYRANNI?’ [Why should or inscriptions. Silver medal
I recall the horrible murders of a tyrant?] and ‘DII The Netherlands — 1690
CAPITI IPSIUS GENERIQ RESERVENT’ [May Ø 5.6 cm
the gods recompense them on his own head
and on his race]. This scene was painted on the © Museum Rotterdam
interiors of Chinese porcelain cups and teabowls
with the ‘Rotterdam Riots’ on the exterior. The substantial number of recorded pieces indicates
An example of a cup depicting the two sides the popularity of this scene. One plate was in the
of the medal is in the British Museum, London,5 collection of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony
and a further one was in the Edward and Judi and King of Poland (1670-1733), while seventeen
Eckenhoff Collection. plates decorated with the ‘Uproar of Rotterdam’
were sold at an auction in Amsterdam as late as
1754.7 Chinese porcelain examples with this design
are known in museums and private collections
around the world, including in the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London,8 the Princessehof

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