Schaal met het wapen van de familie Udemans

About this artwork

J.G.A.N. de Vries Bequest, The Hague

Art Historical Context

This shallow bowl presents a crisp white surface centered with a colorful coat of arms. The shield is divided into sections: a blue band displaying the letters “W” and “U” flanking a golden star, a brownish field with a swimming fish, and wavy lines suggesting water at the base. Elaborate gold scrollwork, resembling acanthus leaves, surrounds the shield, while a small bird perches above the crest. A narrow gold border patterned with repeated cross motifs frames the entire rim, all rendered with precise, delicate painting on a smoothly turned form. Created anonymously between about 1750 and 1774, the bowl carries the arms of the Udemans family. Its modest size and refined decoration suggest it was made for personal or ceremonial use at the table. Now part of the Rijksmuseum collection through the J.G.A.N. de Vries Bequest, the piece offers a quiet glimpse into eighteenth-century Dutch heraldic tradition and the quiet luxury of everyday objects marked with family identity.

About the Artist

anonymous

In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...