This man with the beard and ruff is Maurice, Prince of Orange-Nassau, son of William of Orange. He lived in Breda Castle as a teenager, and it was here, too, that he enjoyed his first military success, thanks to a famous deception. In 1590 he captured the town from the Spanish by smuggling in his troops on a peat barge. When the Spanish returned to take the town back in 1624, Maurice reappeared once more to defend Breda. According to his opponents, he died of grief at the impending loss of the town.
This bust was made by Jan Claudius de Cock, who worked as a sculptor at Breda Castle – the home of the Nassau family – between 1688 and 1696. They hired De Cock to make sculptures to decorate the castle. This bust of red-firing clay (terracotta) was made in that period.
Portrait of Maurice, Prince of Orange (1567-1625), Jan Claudius de Cock, c. 1692 - 1697, terracotta (bust) and plaster (pedestal) | on long-term loan from Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.