Jacobus Hendriksz Zaffius also known as Saffius or Saffio (1534 – 19 January 1618), was a Catholic pastor in Haarlem.

Biography

He was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

where he later owned some property. From 1568 he was

Prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

of the

Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

monastery ''De Blinken'' in

Heiloo Heiloo () is a municipality and town in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland. The community is part of the cooperation region Kennemerland and is located in the historical region of West Friesland. Heiloo had a population o ...

. In May 1571 he became provost of the

Grote Kerk, Haarlem The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Reformed Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square ( Grote Markt) in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Another Haarlem church called the Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves as ...

. He witnessed the Satisfactie van Haarlem in 1577, as well as the

Alteratie The Alteratie (Eng: Alteration) is the name given to the change of power in Amsterdam on May 26, 1578, when the Catholic city government was deposed in favor of a Protestant one. The coup should be seen in the context of the greater Dutch Revolt th ...

of Amsterdam on 26 May, 1578. Three days after this, Calvinists plundered the Grote Kerk and two years later Zaffius went to jail for refusing to turn over Catholic property to the Haarlem city council.

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

granted him amnesty, and it was on this occasion that he made his donation to the

Frans Loenenhofje The Frans Loenenhofje is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands, on the Witte Heren straat. It was named the "Five room" or ''Vijfkamer'' hofje in 1607 after the five new rooms that were built from the proceeds of the will and testament of Frans Loen ...

. In 1611 he had his painting made by

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

as a memorial to this fact. He died in Haarlem.

Hals portrait

His portrait by

was probably painted after 1609 to hang in the regent's room of the Frans Loenenhofje where a ''Zaffio'' dedication stone was mounted in the same year, but early records of it have been lost. According to

Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...

, who never saw it, the portrait was considered lost, as the original was only known from a print by

Jan van de Velde Jan van de Velde the younger (1593 – ca. 1 November 1641) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver of animal, landscape and still-life subjects. He was the son of Jan van de Velde the Elder and the father of the still life painter Ja ...

. He wrote: "245. JACOBUS ZAFFIUS (1534-1618), Proctor for the Archbishop in Haarlem. M. 86. Half-length. He sits at a table, turned three-quarters right, and looks to the right past the spectator. His left hand rests on a skull ; his right makes a gesture as if he were speaking. His right arm rests on the arm of the chair. He has a white moustache and beard. He wears a cap and a fur cloak over dark clothes. At top to the right is a coat-of-arms, with a goat jumping to the right, and below it the inscription, 'AETA 84, obiit 1618.' See Moes, ''Iconographia Batava'', No. 9378. Described from a print by J. van der Velde, 1630 ; the original is lost." This portrait was discovered in 1919 and was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Phillips-de Jongh of Eindhoven who gifted it to the

Frans Hals Museum The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...

in 1920. In 1974

Seymour Slive Seymour Slive (September 15, 1920 – June 14, 2014) was an American art historian, who served as director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1975 to 1984. Slive was a scholar of Dutch art, specifically of the artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Ja ...

included it as the earliest painting attributable to Hals and at that time it was considered the lost original, but a fragment cut down on all sides. Restoration activities have since proven that the wooden panel was not cut down, but dendrological research has shown the panel was painted in the correct period.Portrait of Jacobus Hendricksz. Zaffius (1534-1618), dated 1611
in the

RKDimages The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

database Currently the painting is considered the original and the engraving extended on all sides. File:Frans Hals and Jan van de Velde - portrait of Jacobus Zaffius seated at a table with skull.jpg File:Zaffius jacobus 1611.JPG File:Haarlem-Frans Loenenhofje-donors.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaffius, Jacobus 1535 births 1618 deaths 16th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Amsterdam Hofje founders Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War