Peter van Dievoet (; French: Pierre, Dutch: Peeter, Latin: Petrus; 16611729) was a sculptor, statuary, wood carver, and designer of ornamental architectural features from Brussels. He achieved fame for his work on a number of the Baroque guild houses of the Grand-Place (Brussels' main square), which was rebuilt after the bombardment of 1695, as well as on the Statue of James II in Trafalgar Square, London. He was the brother of Philippe van Dievoet, goldsmith to King Louis XIV of France and the uncle of the Parisian printer Guillaume Vandive.
Biography
Peter van Dievoet was born into the Van Dievoet family in Brussels and baptised at the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula (now Brussels' cathedral) on 29 June 1661. He was born from the second marriage of Gilles van Dievoet, bourgeois of Brussels, to Gertrude Zeevaert. Gilles van Dievoet (? - † before 1672) had a previous marriage with Catherine Slachmeulder, with whom he had among others: Philippe van Dievoet, goldsmith of King Louis XIV of France. The young Peter was therefore fatherless around the age of twelve or thirteen. His mother later remarried, and died on 22 July 1705.
After some time in Brussels, he moved to England where he was a regular visitor to the studio of Grinling Gibbons. In 1686, he cast and made the statue of James II for St. James's Park in London, now in Trafalgar Square. He returned to Brussels due to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In 1695, he was master of the Quatre-Couronnés at Brussels, the guild of stonemasons and sculptors. He was an acclaimed sculptor and was involved in the construction of the new Grand-Place in its Baroque style. He was a member (one of "The Eight") then a judge (or "Dean") of the Drapery Court of Brussels from 1713 to 1723.
Career
Time in London (1680–1688) According to Edmond Marchal, Van Dievoet's most important works are in England and are "among the best of that time". He worked in London in the studio of Quaker sculptor Grinling Gibbons for almost eight years, from 1680 to 1688. His English production (mainly sculptures) remains poorly known because little research has been done to find and inventory it. George Vertue mentions him only as statuary. The same George Vertue, who had found an agreement and a receipt of payment for this work, attributes to him, in collaboration with a certain Laurens of Mechelen, the bronze statue of James II (1686) in the courtyard of Whitehall, currently in Trafalgar Square. Margaret Whinney notes that this statue does not have an English but rather a continental character and gives it the same attribution: "two Flemings, Laurens of Mechelen and Dievot of Brussels (sic), were employed to model and make it." This attribution is repeated by Sir Lionel Henri Cust: "Dyvoet (sic) ... and Laurens ... who executed the statue of James II at Whitehall." The fore-mentioned Laurens is identified by Paul-Eugène Claessens as the sculptor Laurence Vander Meulen from Mechlin.
Return to Brussels (1689–1729)
Having returned to his hometown around 1689, Van Dievoet had to meet the requirements of the corporate institution and enrol in the corporation of the Quatre-Couronnés, the Guild of the stonemasons, of which he was officially received as master in 1695. It is at this date that his work in Brussels begins. That same year, Brussels was destroyed by the French bombardment.
Already during his lifetime, Van Dievoet was considered a renowned sculptor. Long after his death, a report of the magistrates of Brussels to Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, dated 27 September 1771, quotes Van Dievoet in a list of "very remarkable Brussels sculptors". From his Brussels work, we still know only of the pieces mentioned by Guillaume Des Marez, while waiting for other "discoveries" or authentications. He is mainly known there for his realisations and conceptions of many of the guild houses of the famous Grand-Place.
The following are his work as described by Des Marez:
The House of the White Lamb
The sculptures on the facade of the 1696-built House of the White Lamb (Maison de l'Agneau Blanc) on the / are the work of Van Dievoet.
The Grand-Place
Van Dievoet sculpted the facades of the following guild halls on the Grand-Place: La Maison du Sac (Grand-Place, number 4), La Maison du Cornet (number 6), La Maison de l'Arbre d'Or or the House of Brewers (number 10), La Maison de la Chaloupe d'Or (number 24-25). He was also the architect for Le Heaume (number 34).