The Syndics of the Amsterdam Goldsmiths Guild

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The Syndics of the Amsterdam Goldsmiths Guild

Artist Thomas de Keyser (Dutch, 1596/97-1667)

Place of OriginAmsterdam, Netherlands

Date1627

DimensionsPainting: 50 1/8 × 60 in. (127.3 × 152.4 cm)
Frame: 59 1/2 × 68 3/4 × 3 in. (151.1 × 174.6 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1960.11

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 23

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesMillar, O., "Portraits at the Arcade Gallery," Burlington Magazine, LXXXIX, Nov. 1947, p. 319.

Verzameling Amsterdam - W.J.R. Dreesman, Amsterdam, 1951, III, pp. 763, 799, repr.

Horton, A. K., "Thomas de Keyser: The Syndics of the Amsterdam Goldsmiths Guild," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, IV, Autumn 1961, pp. 87-90.

"Rivista Mensile D'Arte e di Cultura, Cronache," Emporium, no. 804, Dec. 1961, p. 270 (Lists TMA recent acquisitions, mentions Toledo Museum of Art Museum News for Autumn 1961.).

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, Oct.-Dec., 1961," Arts Quarterly, vol. XXV, no. 1, Spring 1962, p. 79.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Butler, Joseph T., "The Connoisseur in America," Connoisseur, vol. 166, no. 667, Sept. 1967, repr. p. 66.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 469, 472, repr. fig. 12.

Citroen, K. A., Amsterdam Silversmiths and their Marks, Amsterdam, 1975, p. 219.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 88-9, pl. 99.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 52.

Wilson, William, H., Dutch Seventeenth Century Portraiture: The Golden Age, Sarasota, 1980, repr. fig. 13 with some text (not in exhibition).

Great Dutch Paintings from America, The Hague, 1990, p. 106.

van Thiel, Pieter J. J., "Catholic Elements in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting..." Simeolis, vol. 20, no. 1, 1990/91, p. 42, no. 8.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 85, repr. (col.).

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, pp. 15-16, 21, repr. (col.) p. 16.

Kok, Jan Piet Filedt, et al., Netherlandish Art in The Rijksmuseum, 1600-1700, Amsterdam, 2001, p. 25, fig. 20 (col.).

Herman, Amy, "Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art," The Frick Collection Members' Magazine, Fall 2002, pp. 4-5, repr. p. 7 (col.).

Bedaux, Jan Baptist et al., Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, Amsterdams Historisch Museum, 2002, p. 169, Afb. 107.

Pietsch, Johannes and Karen Stelleis, Kölner Patrizier- und Bürgerkleidung des 17. Jahrhunderts: die Kostümsammlung Hüpsch im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Riggisberg, Abegg-Stiftung, 2008, p. 38, fig. 13, p. 39 (col.); [translation volume], p. 22.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 159, repr. (col.).

Weller, Dennis P., Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings, Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009, p. 100, fig. 23A.

Baer, Ronni, Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Boston, MFA Publications, 2015, p. 176, no. 36 repr. (col.) p. 185.

Middelkoop, Norbert, ed., Rembrandt and Amsterdam Portraiture, 1590-1670, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional, 2020, repr. (col.) cat. 24, p. 122.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Arcade Gallery, Exhibition of Portraits, 1947.

Amsterdam, Museum Willet Holthuysen, 1950, no. 212.

Tel-Aviv Museum, Holland's Golden Age, 1959, no. 61.

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Style, Truth and the Portrait, 1963, no. 10, repr.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Age of Rembrandt, 1966, no. 28, repr.

San Francisco, California Palace or the Legion of the Honor, 1966.

Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1966.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum; Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Dutch Silver 1580-1830, 1979-1980 (Boston and Toledo showing only, not in cat.).

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, The Glory of the Golden Age, Apr. 15, 2000-Sept. 17, 2000.

New York, Frick Collection, Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art, 2002-2003, p. [3, 9], repr. (col.).

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Rank and Status in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Oct. 11, 2015-May 22, 2016.

Spain, Museu Thyssen-Bornemisa, Rembrandt and Portraitture in Amsterdam 1580-1680 (working title), Feb. 18, 2020-August 30, 2020.

Label TextThese men are the syndics, or officers, of the Amsterdam association of metalworkers. Syndics oversaw the quality of the raw material and of the finished products of guild members. Because their portrait hung in the guildhall, visible to their customers, Thomas de Keyser created a group portrait that communicates the authority and the competence of the syndics. The officer on the left holds with tongs a cupel—a small cup made of porous bone that absorbs molten ore, leaving behind gold or silver. To indicate the man’s status as highest-ranking syndic, de Keyser places his head above the others and shows him wearing an elaborate costume of patterned silk, with decorative gold tips hanging from the ties of his jacket. The seated man in the center grasps a set of “touch needles” used to determine the purity of gold or silver. The other seated man holds a luxury product from the guild: a silver belt from the pile on the table. He extends his other hand towards the viewer, palm up, in a gesture of persuasion, as if to say, “Trust us.”