Wil van der Laan brings Roman emperors to the Via Belgica
Author: Harry Lindelauf
Photography: Via Belgica
Sculptor Wil van der Laan is working on a series of portrait heads of five renowned Roman emperors and an equestrian statue of Julius Caesar. The sculptures are cast in bronze at Art en Craft in Vroenhoven and will be presented in spring 2021. The artist hopes for a journey of his artworks to all municipalities in South Limburg along the Via Belgica.
The portraits depict Van der Laan’s personal impression of the emperors. “I did not feel like making copies of existing sculptures. I am of course guided by images from the past, but also by what I read about an emperor. It is difficult, but at the same time very challenging to create my own image from all the information.”
Bronzi dei Dorati
The portrait series has a double origin: “I often go to the museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen. There you can find the portraits that Arthur Spronken made of the former royal family. I have never seen anything so beautiful. For example, the sculpture of Prince Claus. The sculpture shows resemblance but you also see in it that the man was struggling. Another inspiration came from Pergola (in the Marche, Italy). There I saw gilded bronze statues of horsemen from Roman times (Bronzi dei Dorati). Wonderful, so monumental.”
Roman legionary
Besides the exhibitions, a private commission formed the second impulse for Wil van der Laan. He was asked to make life-size bronze sculptures of a Roman legionary. “I then began to immerse myself in Roman culture and read the stories about the emperors. All those impressions kept haunting my mind and I searched for a concept in which I could express all of it. I found that concept in the idea for this series of portrait heads.”
‘Look and shudder’
The Roman series will soon include portraits of Augustus, Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and of course Julius Caesar “because it all begins with him.” The term “emperor” is derived from Caesar.
The sculptures of Wil van der Laan, also known for his three-metre-tall Angel of Maastricht, are accompanied by texts by Dutch scholar Jan Coumans. With words he composes his vision of the emperors. Concerning emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius he writes, for example: “There was no wiser emperor. If only he had been wiser.” And the text about Nero, emperor more than a hundred years before Marcus Aurelius, opens with a sentence of only three words: “Look and shudder.”
On the Thermen
Wil van der Laan is cooperating in this project with foundry Art en Craft in Vroenhoven. “We share the costs, also to celebrate that we have been working together for thirty years.” He thinks he will be able to present the complete series in March 2021 during pop-up exhibitions in all municipalities along the Via Belgica in South Limburg. For Maastricht he already has a concrete idea: his sculptures will soon be placed on the remains of the Roman Thermal Baths on the square of the same name between Stokstraat, Havenstraat and Plankstraat. Indeed, right in the Roman heart of Traiectum ad Mosam.
