The Tomb of Ferdinand van den Eynde is a sculptural monument designed and executed by François Duquesnoy. It is located in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome. Duquesnoy secured the commission for this work thanks to Pietro Pescatore, alias De Visschere, or Pieter Visscher, a Flemish merchant. The site for Eynde's epitaph was granted by the church administration on August 3, 1633. Visscher and Baldoin Breyel were charged with overseeing the tomb's execution. Both of them had been friends of the deceased, who belonged to the expatriate Netherlandish community of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome. The tomb was completed between 1633 and 1640. The putti that compose Van den Eynde's epitaph, especially the righthand putto, are considered "the peak of the evolution of the putto in sculpture" and one of Duquesnoy's greatest achievements. Copies of the Van den Eynde's putti, whether in plaster or wax, were owned by many artists in Rome and Northern Europe. Plaster castings of the putti that decorate Van den Eynde's tomb were listed in the studio inventories of Bernini's assistant Peter Verpoorten and the Italian artist Ercole Ferrata in Rome, as well as in the Antwerp studios of Erasmus Quellinus II and Peter Paul Rubens. Both Giovanni Battista Passeri and Giovanni Pietro Bellori stressed the fame of the Van den Eynde's putti, which served as models of the infant putto for contemporary artists. Many other artists, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Johann Joachim Winckelmann (generally a harsh critic of Baroque sculpture) lauded the Van den Eynde's putti. Throughout the following centuries, artists from around the world portrayed the Van den Eynde's epitaph in painting and drawing. Among the drawings which survive today, there are those of Johan Sylvius, Jean-Robert Ango, and Augustin Pajou. Background The church administration granted the site for Eynde's epitaph on August 3, 1633, with Duquesnoy presumably receiving the commission at this time. In his biography of the Fiammingo, Joachim von Sandrart excused himself from describing the Van den Eynde's tomb, as it was realized after his departure from Rome. Sandrart departed from Rome in 1635. The site for Van den Eynde's epitaph was on the pier directly opposite the tomb of Adriaan Vrijburgh, with the two tombs built up against columns on either side. Vrijburgh was another young Dutch nobleman whose funerary monument was likewise commissioned from Duquesnoy. Duquesnoy had Pietro Pescatore, alias De Visschere, or Pieter Visscher,