Mathieu Kessels (20 May 1784 – 4 March 1836) was a Dutch
Neoclassical sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
who mainly worked in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
.
Biography
Mathieu Kessels (also known as Matthias or Matthijs) was born the son of a carpenter in
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...
. One of his brothers became an architect in Hamburg, whilst another (
Hendrik Johan Kessels) became a famous clock maker in nearby
Altona. Mathieu was first apprenticed to a goldsmith in
Venlo
Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...
but soon gave up his apprenticeship to attend the
École des Beaux-Arts
; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. In 1806 he made his way, via Hamburg, to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
where he abode eight years, learning how to make wax models and sculptures of various kinds in the workshop of
Joseph Camberlain. In 1815 he returned briefly to Venlo and Maastricht. He then spent several months at
Girodet
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (; or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion ...
's studio in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, where his work was exhibited at the
Salon of 1819.
Being determined to go to Rome, he was accepted as an apprentice of the
Danish sculptor
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen (; sometimes given as Thorwaldsen; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish-Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor and medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–183 ...
, probably in 1818. In a competition for young artists, organized by Venetian sculptor
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italians, Italian Neoclassical sculpture, Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was ins ...
, Kessels in 1819 won the highest award with his terracotta ''Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows'', a piece of frank and beautiful workmanship. In Rome he became a member, later professor of the
Academy of St. Luke and of the Institute of the Netherlands. He also was a member of the academies 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 ...
(from 1824 onwards) and
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
.
In Rome Kessels taught the Liege sculptors
Louis Jehotte (c. 1803-84) and
Eugène Simonis
Louis-Eugène Simonis (; 11 July 1810, in Liège – 11 July 1893, in Koekelberg) was a Belgian sculptor.
Career
Simonis studied under François-Joseph Dewandre at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Liège and at the age of nineteen went to ...
, who exerted an influence through their teaching at the
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...
in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
. Another student of Kessels was the Dutch sculptor
Johannes Antonius van der Ven, who sculpted his funeral stone.
Mattieu Kessels died in Rome while he was working on ''Saint Michael overcoming the Hydra of Anarchy'' for the
Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula (now Brussels' cathedral). On Kessels's death his studio, having been inventoried by Thorvaldsen, was acquired by the Belgian government and transferred to the
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...
, Brussels. The museum now owns over 70 works by Kessels. Four plaster sculptures are permanently exhibited in the museum's neoclassical department: ''Discobole lançant le disque'' (1822–23), ''Génie funèbre éteignant un flambeau'' (c. 1829), ''Monument funeraire de la comtesse'' (1830–32) and ''Scène du déluge''
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/brettdunnam/3305267088/ ] (c. 1836).
Patrons
Among his numerous classically minded patrons was
William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire
William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (21 May 1790 – 18 January 1858), styled Marquess of Hartington until 1811, was an English peer, courtier and Whig politician. Known as the "Bachelor Duke", he served as Lord Chamberlai ...
, who commissioned two marble bas-reliefs, ''Day'' and ''Night'' (1819), and ''Diskobolos Preparing to Throw'' (1828), both in
Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...
. A bronze copy of his ''Diskobolos'' stands in the gardens of the
Palais des Académies in Brussels. Another bronze copy is in the
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...
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 ...
. For
Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart, 14th Duke of Alba Kessels sculpted ''Reclining disk thrower'', now in the
Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome, and ''
Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid ( , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known as Amor (Latin: ...
whetting his darts''.
In 1823
Ludwig I, the crown prince of Bavaria, visited him in his studio in Rome and ordered a marble bust of
Admiral Tromp, which in 1845 was placed in the
Walhalla memorial
The Walhalla () is a hall of fame monument that honours laudable and distinguished people in German history"politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue";Official Guide booklet, 2002, p. 3 While all new inductees since 1 ...
in
Donaustauf
Donaustauf is a market town in Bavaria, east of Regensburg at the foothills of the Bavarian Forest. The ruins of a medieval castle, presumably erected between 914 and 930, tower above the small town. Situated nearby on a hill rising from the Da ...
, near
Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
. Ludwig offered Kessels a position as director of the academy in Munich but Kessels remained in Rome. Another important patron was
William I, King of the Netherlands for whom he sculpted ''
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
resting'', a colossal marble now at the palace of
Laeken
(French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is a residential suburb in the north-western part of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. It belongs to the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality of the ...
, for which Kessels received the
Order of the Netherlands Lion
The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands (, ) is a Dutch honours system, Dutch order of chivalry founded by William I of the Netherlands on 29 September 1815.
The Order of the Netherlands Lion wa ...
.
Style evolvement
In our days, Kessels is no longer regarded as a major artist but in his lifetime he was famous. As he belonged to the Roman school of neoclassical sculpture, founded by Canova and Thorvaldsen, along with
Johann Gottfried Schadow
Johann Gottfried Schadow (20 May 1764 – 27 January 1850) was a German Prussian sculptor.
His most iconic work is the chariot on top of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Biography
Schadow was born in Berlin, where his father was a poor tailor. ...
,
Albert Wolff and others, he adhered to idealist aesthetics and to the laws prescribed by classical art. His pure neoclassical works, apart from some of the works mentioned above, include the marble busts of Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Isis, and Gaius or Lucius Caesar (all 1817-19), ''The genius of Art'' (1820–23), ''Bacchus'' (1823–24), ''Woman weeping over an urn'' (1825) and ''Venus'' (1826–29).
In the late 1820s Kessels renounced some of the pure classicism of Thorvaldsen in favour of the more seductive style of Canova, mixed with the pathos of Italian Baroque. This is the case with his marble monument to the Countess of Celles (Rome,
Chiesa di San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi
The Church of St. Julian of the Flemings (, , , ) is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Julian the Hospitaller, located in Rome, Italy. Historically, the church has been the National churches in Rome, National Church in Rome of the Souther ...
, 1828). In another large sculpture, ''Flood Scene'' (plaster, c. 1833), the romantic emphasis of this work differentiates it from some of the other works of his late period, which are imbued with religious sentimentality, such as a sculpture of ''Christ at the Column'', a bas relief of the head of Christ, a
PietĂ
The PietĂ (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...
, and busts of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the four evangelists.
File:Discobole lançant le disque-ChatsworthHouse.jpg, ''Diskobolos preparing to throw'', Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...
File:Génie funèbre éteignant un flambeau1.jpg, ''Genie of death putting out the flame'', Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...
, Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
File:Scène du déluge2.jpg, ''Deluge scene'', Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
File:Monument_Funeraire_de_la_Comtesse_de_Celles_(1828)4-RomeSanGiuliano.jpg, Tomb of the countess of Celles, Church of San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi, Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
File:Mathieu Kessels, Portrait bust of admiral Maarten Harpertsz Tromp (1824), Walhalla , Regensburg.jpg, Portrait bust of Admiral Tromp, Walhalla memorial
The Walhalla () is a hall of fame monument that honours laudable and distinguished people in German history"politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue";Official Guide booklet, 2002, p. 3 While all new inductees since 1 ...
, Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
Sources
* Bergé, Willem, ''Heimwee naar de klassieken. De beelden van Mathieu Kessels en zijn tijdgenoten, 1815-1840''. Zwolle, Den Bosch (1994)
*
* Ubachs, P.J.H. & Evers, I.M.H., ''Historische Encyclopedie Maastricht'' (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kessels, Matthias
1784 births
1836 deaths
Expatriates in the Papal States
Dutch sculptors
Dutch male sculptors
Artists from Maastricht