Foundation Musick's Monument
MIM – Brussels: Johannes Daniel Dulcken harpsichord with painting by Carolus Bigée
Herman Saftleven/Carolus Bigée
Introduction
I • The Secret Behind the Harpsichord Lid: From Herman Saftleven's Rhine Journeys to the Dulcken Dynasty
The Sound of a Scenery and the Memory of the "Olijfberg Church Antwerpen"
When we admire a historical keyboard instrument, we are looking at more than an ingenious piece of craftsmanship. Behind the strings, the wood, and the delicate paintings often lie deep human histories. In the biography of the legendary harpsichord builder Johann Daniel Dulcken, we endeavor to base every step on irrefutable facts from historical documents — facts that are also being visually recorded in the film project The 5 Generations Dulcken Project. The Musick’s Monument Foundation is working on a Dulcken presentation combining a “lecture, video, and concert.”
To date, a comprehensive description of the monumental lid painting on Dulcken's harpsichord by the painter Carolus Bigée has never been made. Although the guild research regarding Bigée in Antwerp is still ongoing — to determine whether he received the commission directly from Dulcken or if the lid was painted at a later stage — recent archival research may shed a radically new light on the deeper meaning of this artwork.
The key to this secret lies in a rediscovered ecclesiastical conflict in Antwerp. In 1751, a major scandal broke out within the Protestant Olijfbergkerk, where Johann Daniel Dulcken was serving as an elder. The pastor, Rev. Diepelius, had fathered an illegitimate child with his niece and housekeeper. After the child died shortly after birth and the matter was kept secret, the church consistory fell into a deep crisis. Dr. J.B. du Buy wrote about this as early as 1960 in his book De Geschiedenis van den Brabandschen Olijfberg, but at the time he did not know who elder 'Dulken' really was. Du Buy drew his information from letters preserved in The Utrecht Archives and the consistory book of the Olijfbergkerk. He was unaware of Dulcken's specific theological background: the fact that his grandfather Eberhard and father Georg Ludwig were respected theologians, and that his father was a minister in Wingeshausen.
As an elder, Dulcken, along with deputies and the assistance of Rev. Anemaat from the border village of Ossendrecht, had to manage the crisis. The original letters and minutes preserved in The Utrecht Archives reveal how, on August 22, 1751, Dulcken personally succeeded in convincing the repentant couple to marry, after Diepelius had been placed under censure before the synod in The Hague.
Thanks to theological data from Dr. Johannes Burkardt and groundbreaking genealogical research by Ivo de Bruin (whose wife carries the Dulcken DNA), we were able to establish the connection to the Middle Rhine Valley. The reason why Reverend Georg Ludwig Dülcken traveled to the village of Weisel to get married is deeply rooted in the close and complex family ties of the clerical class (Pfarrerstand) at the time. There was a double family connection here through the influential Lehr family from Bad Berleburg: Georg Ludwig's mother (Maria Lehr) and the wife of Reverend Johann Jakob Schramm (Anna Catharina Lehr) were sisters.
We now know that Reverend Georg Ludwig Dülcken was married in the village of Weisel on October 13, 1704. At that time, the theologian Johann Jacob Schramm (* March 9, 1645; † 1729) from Berleburg served as the local pastor—a professional peer of grandfather Eberhard. For Georg Ludwig, his uncle Johann Jakob Schramm's parsonage in Weisel offered a safe, familiar, and influential haven.
Although the marriage date in 1704 is firmly established through later family registers and secondary sources, genealogists hit a brick wall regarding the bride, Johanna Margaretha: she cannot be found in any baptismal register. This is the core of the genealogical problem, which can be traced directly back to the historical chaos of the era.
Before his arrival in Weisel, Reverend Johann Jakob Schramm served in Girkhausen (Wittgenstein) and Weißel (Bacharach). Around Johanna Margaretha's presumed time of birth (estimated between 1675 and 1686, likely around 1684), the Rhine and Palatinate regions were politically highly unstable due to the armies of Louis XIV (the Nine Years' War / War of the Palatine Succession). Many pastors were forced to flee, resulting in children being baptized along the way, with their records ending up in temporary emergency registers that did not survive the test of time.
Furthermore, the registers of Girkhausen from these exact transitional years contain major gaps. We know this thanks to official reports from the Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen (the Central Church Archives of Westphalia). During the digitization process on platforms like Archion, the physical damage became painfully apparent: over the centuries, pages have largely deteriorated or become illegible due to moisture, ink-corrosion, and damage by mice. In addition, the oldest surviving baptismal register of Girkhausen does not begin until 1680, meaning the first six years of Schramm's tenure (1674–1680) are administratively entirely lost. Because her baptismal record is missing due to these historical and physical disruptions, her identity as the daughter of Johann Jakob Schramm is possible—and thus the first cousin of her husband Georg Ludwig Dülcken—has been reconstructed based on a watertight network of godparents (Paten). In the consecutive baptisms of her children, the most prominent members of the Schramm and Lehr families repeatedly appear as witnesses.
Just one day after the hasty marriage inside the house in Weisel, labor began, after which the newborn and extremely weak son, Johann Daniel, was rushed across the Rhine to Sankt Goar. The child did not survive the premature birth and the arduous journey; he died within a week and was buried there ohne Pomp (without ceremony). Two years later, the future harpsichord builder was given the exact same name in Wingeshausen in his memory. When this surviving Johann Daniel married Susanne Maria Knöpfel in Sankt Goar on December 17, 1733, he most likely crossed that exact same stretch of the Rhine at Sankt Goarhausen.
When we look at Carolus Bigée's painting with these hard facts in hand, we transcend the traditional art-historical classification of an "arbitrary fantasy landscape." Yes, Bigée used a composition by Herman Saftleven as a blueprint, but the documented history of the Dulcken family on the Rhine — the consecutive crossings at Sankt Goarhausen, the marriage of his parents, and his own wedding — imbues the details on the lid with a breathtaking, autobiographical significance that goes far beyond a mere fantasy landscape with a river.
II • An Artistic Exploration After the Peace of Westphalia
Georg Ludwig Dülcken & Johanna Margareta
Eine Kopie der Taufurkunde von Johann Daniel, (*) 14. October 1704, Sankt Goar
Thanks to Mrs. Nagel. Moderator Archion Forum
1704,
"On the evening of the 14th of October at 9 o'clock, Johann Daniel, the son of Mr Georg
Ludwig Dülcken, was baptised in the house. The godfather was
Mr Luther Daniel Maul, the hospital master.
This took place in an emergency, as the child
was very weak, as the wet nurse said.
They were married the day before
in Weissel.
The child died within the
week and
was buried without
ceremony".
The Crossing in the Night (Sankt Goar, 1704)
On the evening of October 14, 1704, a deeply moving human drama reached its climax at the foot of Schloss Rheinfels. Georg Ludwig Dülcken, a young theologian from Berleburg, had married his heavily pregnant partner, Johanna Margaretha, in great haste just the day before—on October 13—inside the parsonage of the Rhine village of Weisel. This lightning wedding, performed by his uncle Rev. Johann Jakob Schramm, was intended to avert a bureaucratic and social scandal within the clerical class regarding an out-of-wedlock birth.
Shortly after the ceremony, labor began. On October 14, at around nine o'clock in the evening, their infant son Johann Daniel was born. Because the newborn was extremely weak and his life hung in the balance, a desperate decision was made. While the exhausted mother was unable to leave her confinement bed in Weisel, a perilous night-time crossing of the turbulent Rhine was risked with the critically ill infant. Salvation was sought on the opposite bank, in the larger town of Sankt Goar. There, in the safety of the official residence of the hospital master (Hospitalmeister) Luther Daniel Maul, the dying baby was rushed through an emergency baptism. However, the child did not survive the premature birth and the grueling journey across the water; he passed away within a week and was buried there in total silence, ohne Pomp (without ceremony). Two years later, their next son born in Wingeshausen would be given the exact same name, forever memorializing this lost firstborn.
II • An Artistic Exploration After the Peace of Westphalia
Johann Daniel Dülcken & Susanna Maria Knöpefell
SANKT GOAR - Heiratseintrag 1733 Johann Daniel Dülcken und Susanna Maria Knüpfelin
transcriptie Dr. Johannes Burkardt
Compleet
17. [Decem]ber * Sindt H[er]r Johann Daniel Dülcken, Kauff- u[nd] Handels=mann,
H[errn] Pfarrers Dül=
ckens zu Winches=hausen (sic!) in der Graffschafft Berlenburg
Ehel[icher] Sohn, u[nd] J[ung]fer
Susanna Maria Knüpfelin, des weyland H[errn] Johann Conrad Knüpfels
gewesenen proviant=Com[m]issarii u[nd] Stiffts=Kellers allhie,
nachgelasene Ehel[iche]
Tochter, copuliret u[nd] den 23 t[en] augusti hui[us] anni zum
I stenmal p[ro]clamiret word[en].
* Darunter Eintrag mit blasserer Tinte, aber von gleicher Hand: „16. hui[us] de infra. N[ota] B[ene].“
🇬🇧 Marriage of the merchant and trader Johann Daniel Dülcken, son of the minister Dülcken zu Wingeshausen in the county of Berleburg, with Susanna Maria Knüpfelin, daughter of the deceased Provisions Commissioner and Abbey Waiter Johann Conrad Knüpfel, on December 17, 1733 (For the marriage registration of 1733, it states: Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland, Boppard, KB 149/1 (St. Goar ref.), p. 287.)
Carolus Bigée: Schilder van syne Conste
II • An Artistic Exploration After the Peace of Westphalia
Guide for the Markings on the Print
Rheinfels Castle (Marking: Top right)
This is the colossal castle complex on the hill on the right side of the print, directly marked with the capital letter A.
The Hospitaltor / Hospital Gate (Marking: The small gate by the water)
Look at the row of houses along the waterfront. At the very right edge of the town (just before the open green castle slope begins), you can see the town wall rising from the water.
Exactly where this wall meets the water, there is a small gatehouse with a pointed turret. This is the Hospitaltor.
The Hospital / The "Gotteshaus" (Marking: Directly to the left of the gate)
Directly inside (to the left of) this town wall and right behind the Hospitaltor is the northernmost row of townhouses.
The elongated building with the large hipped roof leaning directly against the town wall (making it the very last large building of the town on the right side, just below the castle slope) is the hospital complex of director Luther Daniel Maul.
• Eberhard von Dülcken (ca 1535 - † Maart 1617 Elverfeldt) - Wundarzt
• Johannes von Dülcken (1560 - † Maart 1603 ) - Arzt - evangelisch-reformiert
• Johannes Dülcken (JAN Dülcken) (Geburt: in: Solingen - Taufe, 3 Juli 1591 Elverfeldt † 12 Februari 1655 Elverfeldt) - Wundarzt, Rektor
Although Georg Ludwig himself had traded his family's medical tradition for the pulpit and music, his surname still carried immense historical weight in Elberfeld. His grandfather Johannes and great-grandfather Johannes von Dülcken had been highly respected surgeons and physicians in the town, serving as the very cornerstones of the local healthcare system.
For this hasty and emotional emergency baptism, Georg Ludwig sought a godfather who understood these deep roots within the Elberfeld community. He found him in 41-year-old Luther Daniel Maul. As the Hospitalmeister (director) of the local hospital, Maul was the man responsible for the financial and organizational management of the town's healthcare. While he was not a medical doctor himself, he knew the Dülcken family's medical legacy inside out and shared their high social standing.
Thanks to this emergency baptism, young Daniel Dülcken was not only saved in the eyes of the church, but a beautiful historical record was created. It is because of this specific, supportive encounter between the hospital director and the minister's family that the name of Luther Daniel Maul remains preserved in the archives to this day.
- Name: Luther Daniel Maul
- Year of birth: 1663
- Occupation: Hospitalmeister (Hospital master / director)
- Marriage: Married in 1689 to Anna Constantina Matthai (at age 26)
- Children: Two sons (including Johann Daniel Maul)
- Siblings: At least 9 (including Maria Magdalena, Maria Margaretha, Reinhard)
