11.6 Lost Works
L1 – Portrait of Philipp Nicolai (formerly St. Catharine’s Church, Hamburg)
The portrait of Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) is today known only through a copper engraving by Jan Diricks van Campen (active between 1602 and 1622) [L1a].1 The engraving shows the portrait of the main pastor of St. Catharine’s, who was also an important poet and musician, at the age of 49. It is a half-length portrait turned to the right. Nicolai’s gaze seems rigorous and austere. Between his eyebrows there are slightly brooding wrinkles. He wears his hair cut short. His beard is divided into two beard tips, which protrude beyond the stiff collar of his ruff. He wears a garment with a narrow button placket and above it a coat with puff sleeves and wide fur trimming. In his left hand he holds a thick book with two book buckles. The oval portrait is surrounded by an elaborate ornamental frame. At the bottom there is cartouche with strapwork and scrolls containing a poem in praise of the deceased priest by Georg Dedeken (1564-1628).2 Two angels sit on this cartouche, supporting the oval frame of the portrait. They hold a sword and a palm frond in their hands. In the upper spandrels Moses and John the Baptist are depicted. With this program and with the accompanying inscriptions, the portrait proves to be an epitaph for Philipp Nicolai, who was strictly Lutheran. In his sermons he repeatedly polemicized against the Calvinists and he authored several controversial writings against Petrus Plancius (1552-1622). The cartouche with scrolls resembles the inscription cartouche on the Allegory of Death and the rich man in the St. Jacob’s Church.
L1a
Jan Diricks van Campen after David Kindt
Portrait of Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), 1608-1613
Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. MP 17106
L2 – Portrait of Jacob Reinecke (formerly St. Catharine’s Church Hamburg)
The portrait of Jacob Reinecke is only known through a copper engraving by Jan Diricks van Campen (active between 1602 and 1622) [L2a].3 The engraving can be directly connected with an entry in the account book of St. Catharine’s Church of 1613. Here it is said that the painter David Kindt received 16 Mark on August 9 for the portrait of the deceased priest.4
The engraving shows a half-length portrait of Reinecke, turned to the left, in an oval frame. He wears a clerical gown with puff sleeves and a ruff. His hair is short. The tip of his goatee is just touching the stiff collar. He holds a book with two buckles in his right hand. Lichtwark already suggested that the lost painting might be by the same master as the portrait of Friedrich Lindenbrog.5 If we compare the engraving with the original male portraits by David Kindt, the similarity supports the assumption that the engraving reproduces a work by the master.
Jacob Reinecke (1572-1613), who Latinised his name to Jacobus Reneccius, was born in Salzwedel, Brandenburg. He studied theology and passed his master’s degree in 1598 in Wittenberg. In 1601 he was rector of the Wittenberg grammar school and deacon at the St. Stephan’s Church in Wittenberg. His first position as a parson was in Tangermünde. From there he went in 1601 to St. Peter’s Church in Cölln at the Spree river, where he was appointed provost and consistorial councillor in 1608. One year later, in 1609, he was appointed principal pastor of St. Catharine’s Church in Hamburg. In 1612 he became an inspector and professor of theology at the academic Gymnasium Johanneum. Jacob Reinecke wrote numerous theological treatises. He died in Hamburg on 28 June 1613 at the age of 42.
L2a
Jan Diricks van Campen after David Kindt
Portrait of Jacob Reinecke (1572-1613), dated 1613
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, inv./cat.nr. PORT_00111107_01
L3-L6 – Four full-length portraits of the dukes of Gottorf (formerly Gottorf Castle)
Four life-size full-length portraits of Duke Friedrich III of Schleswig-Holstein Gottorf (1597-1659) and his wife Duchess Maria Elisabeth of Saxony (1610-1684), are reported in the account books of Gottorf Castle in 1631:
‘1631 [Unter] Gemeine Außgabe im Novembri No: 505 denn 9. Novembris … Davidt Kinth Contrafaietern von Hamburgk wegen F: G: Meines gnedigen Fürsten unnd Herrn, unnd dehro freundtlich viellgeliebten Gemahlinnen, Meiner gnedigen Fürstinnen unnd Frawen gefertigter Vier Contrafaiete in voller Statur nach lebendts lenge, auch seiner auff gethaner annhero und wiederzurückreiße, auf gewandter Zehrung, wagenfuhr unnd anderer Unkosten, zusammen bezahlt 311 Rthr: 24 ß’ [1631 [Under] Common expenses in November No: 505, for 9 November ... Davidt Kinth Portraitist from Hamburg, for our high-born and gracious Prince and Lord, and his kind beloved wife, our gracious Princess and Lady, for four portraits in full stature, made according to life size, also for his outward and return journey and his provision, carriage and other expenses, together paid 311 Rthr: 24 ß].6
L7-L8 – Two portraits and a tronie (formerly private collection, Hamburg)
A 17th-century inventory of a Hamburg collection of paintings lists two unidentified portraits and one female tronie:
‘3 […] Contrefait von dem alten David Kindt und Item ein kostliche Frauens Tronie von ihm’ [painting by the old David Kindt and an exquisite head of a women by him].7
L9 – Adoration of the shepherds (formerly St. Nicolai Church, Rostock)
The Adoration of the Shepherds by David Kindt was in the St. Nicolai Church in Rostock until 1945. This large-format, signed painting is only mentioned by Friedrich Schlie in his list of monuments of the city of Rostock from 1896.8 Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the work since 1945.9
L10 – Lost album amicorum sheet (Kupferstichkabinett Berlin)
Carl Schellenberg reports a drawing that David Kindt entered in the album amicorum of the Brunswick copper engraver Gottfried Müller (active 1616-1658), which must be considered lost even before 1942.10
L11-L12 – Two lost maps
Harry Schmidt included two lost maps of the river Elbe in David Kindt’s catalogue of works, which are listed in Hamburg’s city account books: ‘Dem Maler David Kindt zwei Abrisze des Elbstroms à 15 rth = 34 M 11 ß’.11
Notes
1 Jan Diricks van Campen, after David Kindt, Portrait of Philipp Nicolai, copper engraving, 1608, 205 x 153 mm, inscribed: J. D. fecit, EFFIGIES MAGNI AC PRAESTANTISSIMI THEOLOGI DN. D. PHILIPPI NICOLAI PIE DEFVNCTI A[NN]O MDCIIX OCTO; NATVS EST A[NN]O M.D.LVI. X AVGVSTI; VERITAS O[MN]IA VINCIT; Hoc quondam Famâ celeberrimus ille PHILIPPVS/ EEs POPVLI VICTOR strenuus ore fuit:/ Qui cum Cingliaca luctatus gente tot annos/ Intrepidi sacrum militis egit opus:/ Doctrinaq. Potens valuit superare rebelles/ Quod notum Eois Hesperiisq. plagis:/ Candidus, humanusq. fuit: iam coelica felix/ Pro dubia mundi gaudia, forte capit; M. Georgius Dedekennus, in amorem collegae olim coniunctiss. Schellenberg 1942, p. 267-270. The series is not mentioned in Hollstein et al. 1949-2010, vol. 4.
2 The cartouche is taken from Hans Vredeman de Vries’s series Deorum Dearumque of 1573. See Hollstein et al. 1949-2010, vol. 47-48 (1997), vol. 2, no. 372 (text: P. Fuhring).
3 Jan Diricks van Campen after David Kindt, Portrait of Jacob Reinecke, copper engraving, 1613, 164 x 134 mm, inscribed: J. Dierecksen sculpsit, EFFIGIES REVERENDI ET CLARISSIMI VIRI DOMINI IACOBI RENECCII THEOLOGI ANNO 1613, AETATIS SVAE 42, PRVDENTIA ET SAPIENTIA. Literature: Nirrnheim 1920, p. 110ff; Schellenberg 1942, p. 267-270. The series is not mentioned in Hollstein et al. 1949-2010, vol. 4.
4 Nirrnheim 1920, p. 110.
5 Lichtwark 1898, p. 90.
6 Schmidt 1915, p. 293; Schmidt 1919, p. 36.
7 Staatsarchiv Hamburg 211-2_M 80.
8 David Kindt, Adoration of the shepherds, oil on canvas, ca. 153 x 214 cm, signed and dated: 1648 David Kindt. Literature: Schlie 1896, p. 166, no. 7; Schmidt 1919.
9 Friendly information of Dr. Antje Heling-Grewolls, consultant for art and cultural property of the Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, Schwerin, by e-mail on 8 November 2017: '... unfortunately I couldn't find any trace in our documents regarding the whereabouts of the painting. We must therefore assume that it was actually lost when the church was destroyed in 1942’ (in translation).
10 The album amicorum was formerly in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, inv. 79 A 8. Provenance: Nagler. Oertel 1936 (without naming David Kindt); Riewerts 1937, p. 198; Schellenberg 1942, p. 260ff. A sheet from this album by Hindrick Pijman (c. 1580-after 1647) is listed as RKDimages 231688.
11 Voigt 1896, p. 214; Schmidt 1919, p. 35.