Jan Claudius de Cock

He worked on decorations for the courtyard of the Breda Palace for William III, King of England, Ireland, and Scotland and stadtholder. He is credited with introducing neoclassicism in Flemish sculpture. He was a prolific draughtsman and designed prints for the Antwerp publishers.

Places of work recorded in the authority are Antwerp and Breda. Work by Jan Claudius de Cock is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Stedelijk Museum Wuyts-Van Campen en baron Caroly, Rijksmuseum and Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

De Cock was the son of Claudius de Cock and Magdalena van Havré. His father was an Antwerp sculptor who had been registered at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder in the guild year 1660–1661. No known sculptures by him are known. Jan Claudius followed in his father's footsteps and was registered in the guild year 1682–1683 at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of his father's master, Pieter Verbrugghen the Elder. Verbrugghen operated one of the foremost sculpture workshops of Antwerp, which supplied local churches and international clients with a variety of statuary, church furniture and architectural decorations. • Illustration — Asia Jan Claudius was admitted as a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1688–1689. He did not immediately establish his own workshop but continued to work for some time in the workshop of Pieter Verbrugghen the Younger (c. 1640–1691), son of his master Pieter the Elder and brother of Hendrik Frans Verbruggen (1654–1724). Only after the death of Pieter Verbrugghen the Younger in 1691 did he establish himself as an independent sculptor. From 1692 onwards, he worked on a commission by William III of England to execute decorative sculptures for the interior and exterior of the King's castle in Breda called the Prinsenhof (now Breda Castle). This renovation project of the castle was designed by Dutch architect Jacob (Jacobus) Roman and executed under the direction of Johannes de Wijs. De Cock, accompanied by his brother-in-law Melchior Serlippens and 7 or 8 young assistants, worked on his commission from the beginning of 1693 until 1697. He made mainly sculptures, including a statue of Mars, which stood on the tympanum of the monumental staircase against the west wing. He decorated an interior staircase with foliage and animal figures, created two fireplaces, a mirror frame and a statue of Mars. In addition, stone and wooden sculptures by his hand were placed in various apartments. During his activities in Breda, he was given temporary residence and working space at the local government's location. There he also gave lessons in drawing. He carved the 'William and Mary' ceiling and made a series of busts of the Princes of Orange, including of Prince Philip William and Prince Maurice. As far as is known, nothing has been preserved of de Cock's sculptures at Breda Castle. On 13 January 1693, he married Maria Clara Serlippens, the daughter of a merchant. In 1694 the couple's first child was born in Breda, followed by a second in 1696. More children were born of whom 3 died in childhood. De Cock was reportedly small in stature. In his sketch regarding de Cock included in his biographies on Dutch and Flemish artists, the serial vilifier Jacob Campo Weyerman went so far as to compare him to a dwarf. Weyermans also alleges without evidence that the de Cocks had a troubled marriage. Nevertheless, at their 25th wedding anniversary de Cock published a eulogy to marriage. • Illustration — Choir stalls, St Peter's Church in Turnhout By around 1697, Jan Claudius de Cock had moved back to Antwerp, where he resided for the rest of his life. He operated a large workshop where he employed many assistants and trained 16 pupils in sculpture and drawing. The latter also studies modeling with the aim of a career as a silversmith. He had close contacts with the Antwerp printers as shown by the bust he made of Balthasar III Moretus, the manager of the Plantin Press and the designs he made for the Plantin Press. After a productive career, De Cock died in Antwerp in early 1735. It is likely that his estate was insolvent as his daughter soon after his death travelled to The Hague to sell, with mixed feelings, some of his marble sculptures and models.

• Illustration — Alpheius and Arethusa

De Cock was a prolific and versatile artist who worked on a wide range of church furniture such as altars, choir stalls, confessionals, pulpits and tombs, as well as secular items such as garden statues and vases, designs for cradles, clocks, floats, reliquaries and monuments. In addition, he also produced smaller scale sculptures and portrait busts. He was a prolific draftsman and was sought after as a teacher of drawing and sculpting. He created designs for the frontispieces and illustration of publications of the Antwerp printers. He produced a few prints of his own. While he was described by Weyermans as a painter, no known paintings by his hand are known. He wrote poems on occasional subjects as well as a manual of sculpture in rhyme.

• Illustration — Burning city by a river De Cock was a prolific draughtsman who left an extensive body of drawings. Many of these were studies for his sculptures or other objects such as garden vases and cradles. Some were artworks in their own right such as the Burning city by a river (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum). Others were designs for illustrations made for the Antwerp printers. We now know that no fewer than five engravers turned his designs into prints, including Jan Antoni de Pooter, Petrus Balthasar Bouttats, Hendrik Frans Diamaer, Jan Baptist Jongelinck and Norbert Heylbrouck the Elder. He designed the title page and 17 illustrations for the Breviarium Romanum published by Balthasar IV Moretus first in 1707. The Antwerp engraver cut the plates for the publication. In 1706 and 1708 he provided the design for the title page of the Syntagma de annulis historico-symbolicum. Authore R.P. Francisco Curtio Augustiniano Brugensi (...) and a portrait of the eighty-one-year-old artist biographer Cornelis de Bie, which were both engraved by Hendrik Frans Diamaer. He made several prints of which only two are known, one an etching of the Martyrdom of Saint Quirin of Neuss and the other a woodcut representing Psyche in clair obscur. He had apparently learned his printmaking techniques from his study of the, which appeared in Dutch translation of Abraham Bosse's 1645 Traité des manières de graver en taille-douce (Treatise on Line Engraving) published in Amsterdam in 1662 as Tractaet in wat manieren men op root koper snijden ofte etzen zal (…). A copy of the book with de Cock's name inscribed in it was found in his collection.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.