PIETER CODDE (Amsterdam 1599 – Amsterdam 1678)
A Guardroom Scene in a Church
signed in the lower center with the initials PC conjoined
oil on panel
19.3 x 30.5 inches (49 x 77.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Private Collection NRW
Anonymous sale, Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, November 18, 2011, lot 83, illustrated
LITERATURE
Jochai Rosen, Pieter Codde (1599 – 1678) Catalog Raisonné, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2020, p.100, no. 112, illustrated, p. 399, no. 112, illustrated (as whereabouts unknown)
Pieter Codde was born to a prominent middle-class family in Amsterdam who throughout his life provided moral and financial support for his career. Such freedom must have allowed Codde to pursue the innovations upon which his fame now rests.
It is unknown where and with whom he served his apprenticeship. It is assumed that sometime between 1620 – 1623 he finished his training and became an independent master focusing on portraits and genre. From 1628 – 1638 Codde was at the height of his creativity devoting his talents to the modernization of Merry Company scenes as well as the formulation of one of the most distinctive subjects in Dutch 17th century painting that of the guardroom scene.[1]
In 1621 the Dutch struggle for independence from the Spanish crown known as the Eighty Years’ War resumed. As a result, soldiers became more prevalent in the streets of Amsterdam, their lifestyle became romanticized, viewed as figures that were both to be feared and admired. Such notoriety probably led Codde and his contemporaries William Duyster, Pieter Quast, Pieter Potter, and Jacob Duck to formulate these unique scenes; and Codde was the most dominant and innovative of the group.[2] These works met with great success aimed at an audience fascinated by the imagined wild and carefree life of mercenary soldiers drawn from the lower levels of society organized and led by aristocratic officers who functioned as military contractors as well as commanders. Upon enlistment soldiers received a small payment, but their primary source of income was based on the selling of future booty and ransom received for people held as prisoners. Looting and ransoming were widespread practices.[3]
As in this work, the majority of such scenes were devoid of violence instead focusing on soldiers’ off-duty hours spent gambling, drinking, sleeping, and carousing with camp followers depicted in varying types of requisitioned quarters. Class distinctions between officers and soldiers were maintained in these paintings as the commander is always recognizable by his superior dress, attitude, and prominent placement within the composition. Further these works had an element of theatricality on a stage-like setting in which a series of scenes occur simultaneously with spot lighting employed to heighten the drama.[4]
A large part of Codde’s work was devoted to such imagery. Deserted churches as backdrops for the Guardroom Scenes of Jacob Duck, Pieter Quast and Pieter Potter were commonly employed, but our A Guardroom Scene in a Church is Codde’s only known example which Jochai Rosen dates to circa 1631 – 1635.[5] Viewing from left to right, shadowy figures are gambling, drinking and sleeping. A woman whose low neckline marks her as a prostitute is spotlighted.[6] A large sack of booty with its contents spilling out is in the foreground. In the center of the midground a couple tussle. To their right another group are engaged in a card game with a camp follower and officer looming above. Not only is she distinguishable by her dress, a woman smoking a pipe was a common allusion for sexual intercourse.[7] The officer’s expression towards her is certainly not one of disinterest. Wedged between the officer’s back and a saint’s effigy, is a soldier whose gaze directly engages the viewer and knowing grin says it all. The juxtaposition of the soldier and the saint’s monument are startling, with the soaring heights of the church walls adding to the overall drama. Enhancing the rawness of the action is Codde’s technique. Executed in a brown tonality, his brushwork has an immediacy and sketchiness not found in his other subject matter, perhaps underscoring the fleeting nature of such a chosen lifestyle. This outstanding and unique work substantiates Jochai Rosen’s summation of the painter’s career, writing “Codde was the most prolific and influential genre painter in Holland during the 1630s”.[8]
[1] Jochai Rosen, op.cit., 2020, pp. 4 – 5, 206.
[2] Ibid, pp. 2, 5, 85.
[3] Jochai Rosen, “The Dutch Guardroom Scene of the Golden Age: A Definition”, in Artibus et Historiae, volume 27, no. 53, 2006, p. 171; and Jochai Rosen, op.cit., p. 85.
[4] Jochai Rosen, op.cit., 2006, pp. 163, 169, 171.
[5] Jochai Rosen, 2020, op.cit., pp. 85, 100.
[6] Jochai Rosen, op.cit., 2006, p. 161.
[7] Benjamin B. Roberts, Sex and Drugs Before Rock ‘n’ Roll, Youth Culture and Masculinity, during Holland’s Golden Age, Amsterdam University Press, 2012, p. 223.
[8] Jochai Rosen, op.cit., 2020, p. 208.