Church Monuments Society

Salviuskerk

The tomb slab of Watze van Ockinga (d. 1575) and his wife Wick van Cammingha (d. 1598) in the parish church of Dronrijp (Friesland, Netherlands)

Month: June 2025
Type: Incised slab  
Era: 16th Century

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Salviuskerk
Tsjerkebuorren 1, 9035 BA Dronryp, Netherlands

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A ricchly classical ledgerstone with a surprising political message

The medieval Salviuskerk in the village of Dronrijp (Friesland, fig. 1) houses the richly carved tomb slab for Watze van Ockinga (d. 1571) and his wife Wick van Cammingha (d. 1598) (fig. 2). The couple’s details are given in the inscription in raised Roman capitals around the edges of the slab, starting in the upper left corner:

Anno MVc ende LXXV den 31 decembris sterf den [eedelen] eerentfesten meester Watze van Ockinga coninklijke majesteits raedt inden hoeve van Frieslant. Anno MVc ende XCVIII den XXI iulii, sterf die [eedele] eerbare jufvrou Wick van Kamminga, zyn wijf.

 (In the year 1575, on the 31st of December, died the [noble] venerable master Watze van Ockinga, councillor of His Royal Majesty at the court of Friesland. In the year 1598, on the 21st of July, died the [noble] honourable mistress Wick van Cammingha, his wife.)

The inscription identifies Watze as a lawyer who was employed at the Frisian court in capital Leeuwarden on behalf of king Philip II of Spain. Indeed, by 1524 the Frisian States had officially recognised his father Charles V as their sovereign. Yet in the second half of the sixteenth century opposition to Charles’s son and successor Philip II grew and this happened not only in Friesland but in all the northern provinces of the modern-day Netherlands. Ultimately this opposition led to the Eighty Years’ War (or Dutch Revolt) against Spanish Empire, which lasted from 1568 to 1648. In view of these circumstances, it is remarkable that the Spanish king is explicitly mentioned in the marginal inscription on the slab of a lawyer who died in 1575.

Wick van Cammingha, who survived her husband for 27 years, was the second wife of Watze van Ockinga. Both belonged to local noble families but the word ‘edele’ (noble) that preceded both their names was deliberately effaced during the French occupation (1795-1813) when every aristocratic symbol or reference was forbidden because of the revolutionary motto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. The couple had a son named Watze (d. 1624), like his father. After the death of her husband, Wick probably married another Frisian nobleman: Aede van Eysinga (birth and death unknown).

The centre of the slab features a Renaissance-style triumphal arch, resting on four classical columns and decorated with masks, fruit and other Renaissance motifs. Beneath the arch are the couple’s escutcheons, surmounted by a helmet, crest and mantling: his shield is on the left (dexter) side and hers is the lozenge-shaped shield on the right (sinister) side. However, the heraldic devices on the shields were likewise effaced during the French period although we can still read their family names on the strapwork cartouche below: ‘Ockinga’ and ‘Kaminga’. The perspectival illusion of depth within the triumphal arch suggests the road from the here and now to life after death, with the couple being represented by their two escutcheons.

The carved figures on the slab are derived from Classical Antiquity. On either side of the arch we see the female personifications of Memoria (left) and Gloria (right), according to the Latin texts on their pedestals. Memoria writes down the name of the deceased onto a scroll so that it may not be forgotten. In her other hand she appears to be holding an inkwell. Gloria represents the victory over death. She holds a palm branch in one hand, a laurel wreath in the other. Together these allegorical figures visualise the immortal virtues of the deceased.

The compartment above the triumphal arch contains amidst a plethora of other Renaissance motifs, including putti and satyrs, another cartouche with the text:

Werlt van allendicheit ick bescry / Uw(?) sotheit ick met lachge u bery(?).

(World of misery [which] I deplore; of Your(?) folly [which] I counter(?) with laughter)

The text is rather awkwardly written and thereby difficult to read, but the wretched world is clearly central to the text: you can lament it or laugh at its folly.

Flanking this cartouche are two figures who can be identified as two famous Greek philosophers: the weeping Heraclitus (c. 540-480 BC) and the laughing Democritus (c. 465-360 BC) (fig. 3). Although these two philosophers lived in different periods they were often presented together in the sixteenth century as antitheses, both of them alluding to the relativity of earthly life. They also feature in an engraving of 1557 by the artist, scholar and humanist Dirk Volkertsz Coornhert (1522-1590), after a design by Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) (fig. 4). At the top of this engraving is a cartouche with the biblical text from Ecclesiastes 3:4: ‘Tempus ridendi, tempus flendi’ (A time to weep and a time to laugh). The globe in between Heraclitus and Democritus is covered with a fool’s cap: a clear allusion to the foolishness of the world. However, the print characterises not only the world as foolish, but also the behaviour of both philosophers. The text that Coornhert added below them reminds Democritus that his time would be better spent on science, while Heraclitus is warned that he could cause a world catastrophe with such a huge amount of tears. The moral of the inscriptions can be read in the central circular cartouche: ‘toleres, abstineasque’ (suffer and shun) – a maxim that often appears in Coornhert’s work and constitutes a plea for rational thinking rather than being carried away by emotions. It is quite plausible that Watze van Ockinga or the sculptor of the tomb slab were familiar with this engraving.

The lower edge of the slab contains yet more important information: written upside down is the signature of the sculptor with the year: ‘B 1572 G’. This tells us that the slab was carved by the Frisian sculptor Benedictus Gerbrandts (d. 1572-73) in 1572 when both spouses were still alive. Apparently the couple chose to commission their own memorial, and presumably their joint burial place, during their lifetime.

A larger cartouche beneath the triumphal arch contains a Neo-Latin verse inscription, seemingly spoken by Watze himself:

Ockingana olim sum gente Valerius ortus.
Nobilitate fuit clarus uterque parens.
Me caesar Carolus famosus rexque Philippus
esse senatorem fecit uterque suum,
principibus dum praesto fidem legesque resolvo,
dum tutor patriae libera iura meae.
Ecce, leves redeo in cineres. Mens astra revisit.
Haec homini tandem lex subeunda fuit.

(Once I, Watze, was born into the Ockinga family. Both my parents were renowned for their nobility. The famous emperor Charles [V] and king Philip [II] both made me their councillor, while I guaranteed trust in the rulers and loosened their laws in order to protect the free rights of my fatherland. Look, I return into light ashes. My soul revisits the stars. Ultimately man should bear this rule.)

 These verses underline Watze van Ockinga’s loyalty to the king of Spain: a striking statement in view of the political unrest in Friesland at this time. After all, there was the Iconoclasm of 1566 and the official rejection of the king of Spain as ruler of the Low Countries in 1581. Increasingly sharp contrasts characterised the period 1566-1581 when the majority of local nobles took a stand against Spanish rule. Ultimately this would lead to a complete rift with the province of Friesland joining the new Republic of the United Netherlands.

Yet Watze van Ockinga evidently had different ideas. The verses on his tomb slab testify to his faith in the Spanish regime and his loyal service to the king of Spain. This blatant political statement is remarkable and it may be for this reason that the couple took the initiative of commissioning their own memorial to ensure that it would accurately reflect their political affiliation.

Trudi Brink

(translation Sophie Oosterwijk)

 

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