Talk:Theodoor Wilkens

Can anyone make this OR into a sourced statement?
It struck me as unusual that this painter is so poorly documented, while most baptismal and marriage data for Amsterdam over his time are extant. RKD puts his birth date between 1680 and 1700, other sources say "born ca. 1675", while we have an improperly precise "born 1690". Our painter was twice witness to a baptism in the Lutheran Church in Amsterdam, as "Theodoro Wilkens" (the unusual italianized name nails this i.m.o.; this was also the name used at the auction in 1748) of two children of Joost Wilkens and Rachel "Swaantul" in 1731 and 1732 (see e.g. the beautiful hand writing on the bottom right of this page). Joost and Rachel Swaanhil (sic) had married just a month before the first baptism, Joost living on the Prinsengracht as widower of Maria van Deutecom, so he probably wasn't a young man anymore. Assuming he was from Amsterdam, the only feasible ~Joost Wilkens born in Amsterdam was a son of Willem Wilkens and Geertruij Helmans. That couple had married in 1673, with Willem being from Rotterdam, the son of Joost and notably living on the Prinsengracht. They baptized just two children in Amsterdam, Joost in March 1684 and a Dirck on 22 june 1682, not coincidentally in the same Lutheran Church where decades later Joost baptized his children. The Dutch name Dirk finds its origin via Diederik from Theodoric (see there). In Catholic churches most Dirks have "Theodorus" as baptismal name; our "Dirck" logically would have chosen "Theodoro" as his Italianized name. Unfortunately, RKD gives no sources suggesting a 1682 birth year, and googling his name and "1682" gives me nothing. Perhaps someone else con find a source getting this right. Afasmit (talk) 00:45, 27 May 2019 (UTC)