Grave Designs

David Mulder and the Making of the Hardenbroek Epitaph

Abstract

This short notice fucuses on an unsigned design drawing, which matches an epitaph (memorial) created for one of the barons of Hardenbroek now kept in Kasteel Hardenbroek (Utrecht). Although this eighteenth-century object is not signed either, in the castle’s archive financial records are kept stating who were involved in its creation: a carpenter who constructed the framed panel, a sculptor who carved all the decorative elements and the letters of the inscription, and a painter, responsible for gilding and silvering these carvings and letters. As the sculptor, David Mulder (1746-1826), was contracted before the others and was paid the largest sum, it seemed he was in creative control, which makes it plausible he also drew the design. As epitaphs have mostly disappeared for public buildings today, the correct attribution and context for the drawing show how these objects made up a substantial part of the work of many sculptors who are mostly known for their figurative sculptures and portraits.