Fantastic Forgeries

Authourship & Authenticity Project: Museum Of Fantastic Forgeries

OTTO'S HAMMER

Otto van der Waeyen in Pools kostuum, 1656. Ferdinand Bol

In the introduction assignment Make from the Museum we did some scouting in the Boijmans. In that introduction my eye fell on a work from Ferdinand Bol.

The under-script was: This painting shows a boy in Polish costume holding a war hammer. On the floor are a shield, a drum, a 'cuirass' or armoured breastplate and a bow and quiver of arrows. In the background are two cannons with accompanying ramrods and wiper. The boy is Otto van der Waeyen, the son of an Amsterdam based weapons trader who had contacts with Poland.

At first I only saw the letters and the words, just like all the other descriptions of all the work in the Boijmans. But then it came to me. In the year 1600, a Dutch weapon trader earned enough from the war in Poland with Russia to let his son and his merchandise get painted by a master painter. The Netherlands was in the Golden Age, a wealthy time glorified by the Dutch people today. But the wealth has been gathered was gain due to pirate, slavery, bribery, war and especially death. That is was I remember from the history-lessons.

And in that time, a father who earned money with other peoples death have his son, painted with weapons.