Jacobus Hendriksz Zaffius also known as Saffius or Saffio (1534 – 19 January 1618), was a Catholic priest in Haarlem.

Biography

He was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

where he later owned some property. From 1568 he was

Prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

of the

Canons Regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into Religious order (Catholic), religious orders, differing from both Secular clergy, ...

monastery ''De Blinken'' in

Heiloo Heiloo () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and Dorp (town), town in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland. The community is part of the cooperation region Kennemerland and is located in the histori ...

. In May 1571 he became

provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...

of the

Grote Kerk, Haarlem The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Reformed tradition, Reformed Protestant church located on the central market square (Grote Markt (Haarlem), Grote Markt) in the Netherlands, Dutch city of Haarlem. The church was built in 1307. Prior to the Re ...

. He witnessed the

Satisfactie van Haarlem The Satisfactie van Haarlem was one of many treaties made at Veere in 1577 by which Willem the Silent ensured the loyalty of the towns under his rule. Godfried van Mierlo set his seal to the Satisfactie van Haarlem, promising that the Roman Catho ...

in 1577, as well as the

Alteratie The Alteratie (Eng: Alteration) is the name given to the change of power in Amsterdam on May 26, 1578, when the Catholic city government was deposed in favor of a Protestant one. The coup should be seen in the context of the greater Dutch Revolt th ...

of Amsterdam on 26 May, 1578. Three days after this, Calvinists plundered the Grote Kerk and two years later Zaffius went to jail for refusing to turn over Catholic property to the Haarlem city council.

William the Silent William the Silent or William the Taciturn (; 24 April 153310 July 1584), more commonly known in the Netherlands as William of Orange (), was the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburg Netherlands, Habsburgs that set off the ...

granted him amnesty, and it was on this occasion that he made his donation to the Frans Loenenhofje. In 1611 he had his painting made by

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

as a memorial to this fact. He died in Haarlem.

Hals portrait

His portrait by

was probably painted after 1609 to hang in the regent's room of the Frans Loenenhofje where a ''Zaffio'' dedication stone was mounted in the same year, but early records of it have been lost. According to

Hofstede de Groot Hofstede de Groot is a Dutch surname. Notable people with this surname include: * Petrus Hofstede de Groot (1802–1886), Dutch theologian * Cornelis Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch ...

, who never saw it, the portrait was considered lost, as the original was only known from a print by

Jan van de Velde Jan van de Velde the younger (1593 – c. 1 November 1641) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker, mostly of animal, landscape and still-life subjects. He was the son of Jan van de Velde the Elder and the father of the still life painte ...

. He wrote: "245. JACOBUS ZAFFIUS (1534-1618), Proctor for the Archbishop in Haarlem. M. 86. Half-length. He sits at a table, turned three-quarters right, and looks to the right past the spectator. His left hand rests on a skull ; his right makes a gesture as if he were speaking. His right arm rests on the arm of the chair. He has a white moustache and beard. He wears a cap and a fur cloak over dark clothes. At top to the right is a coat-of-arms, with a goat jumping to the right, and below it the inscription, 'AETA 84, obiit 1618.' See Moes, ''Iconographia Batava'', No. 9378. Described from a print by J. van der Velde, 1630 ; the original is lost." This portrait was discovered in 1919 and was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Phillips-de Jongh of Eindhoven who gifted it to the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum (formerly ''Stedelijk Museum van Haarlem'') is a museum in the North Holland city of Haarlem, the Netherlands, founded in 1862, known as the Art Museum of Haarlem. Its collection is based on the city's own rich collection, b ...

in 1920. In 1974

Seymour Slive Seymour Slive (September 15, 1920 – June 14, 2014) was an American art historian, who served as director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1975 to 1984. Slive was a scholar of Dutch art, specifically of the artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and J ...

included it as the earliest painting attributable to Hals and at that time it was considered the lost original, but a fragment cut down on all sides. Restoration activities have since proven that the wooden panel was not cut down, but dendrological research has shown the panel was painted in the correct period.Portrait of Jacobus Hendricksz. Zaffius (1534-1618), dated 1611
in the

RKDimages The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

database Currently the painting is considered the original and the engraving extended on all sides. File:Frans Hals and Jan van de Velde - portrait of Jacobus Zaffius seated at a table with skull.jpg File:Hals Frans - Zaffius, Jacobus Hendricksz - Google Art Project.jpg File:Haarlem-Frans Loenenhofje-donors.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaffius, Jacobus 1535 births 1618 deaths 16th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Amsterdam Hofje founders Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War