Daniël Stalpaert

Daniël Stalpaert was a Dutch painter turned architect who became Amsterdam's first official city architect, a post not filled again for some seventy years after his death. He is remembered chiefly for his role in building the Town Hall on Dam Square, now the Royal Palace, the building that carries the Statue of Atlas.

Life

Stalpaert was born in Amsterdam in 1615, the son of the Brussels-born landscape painter Pieter Stalpaert, and trained first as a painter under his father. In 1645 he married the widow of a timber merchant and seems to have taken over the business. On 29 October 1648 the city council appointed him city architect, though there is no record that he had designed a building before; his connections in the timber trade may explain the choice. He was buried in Amsterdam on 3 December 1676.

The Town Hall on the Dam

The new Town Hall was designed by Jacob van Campen, and construction began in 1648. Stalpaert supervised the building work with the city mason Willem de Keyser. After Van Campen withdrew from the project following disputes, Stalpaert probably made changes to the design as work continued.

The sculpture was the domain of the Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus and his workshop. The Atlas carrying a celestial globe was modeled by Quellinus and cast in bronze in 1663 by the Hemony brothers for the rear pediment; a full-size white model stands inside the Burgerzaal. Stalpaert's link to the Atlas is therefore as the city's architect overseeing the building, not as its sculptor.

Other work

Stalpaert designed 's Lands Zeemagazijn (1656), the naval storehouse that now houses the National Maritime Museum, and the Amstelkerk (1668–70). With the surveyor Cornelis Danckerts he planned the great 1663 expansion of the canal belt, and he designed sober classical city gates such as the Leidsepoort. He also contributed to the Oosterkerk (1669–71), usually credited to Adriaan Dortsman.

For related sculpture see famous sculptures and Baroque art.