 Rembrandt, detail of The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1632 |
 Rembrandt, detail of Double portrait of Jan Rijcksen and Griet Jans, 1633 |
 Frans Hals, detail of Double portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, c. 1622 |
 Frans Hals, Portrait of Catharina Hooft and her wet nurse, c. 1620 |
 Jan Miense Molenaer, detail of Portrait of the painter's family, c.1635 |
They formed the first modern republic in Europe and the wealthiest society of their time, and their wealth was based not on the divine right of church or aristocracy, but on the power they earned with diligent commerce and clever dominance of the seas. These god-fearing burghers of the northern Netherlands were bound to see themselves as a different kind of human being who required new images to depict who they were.
And, indeed, no group before the Dutch 17th-century patricians had ever had so many portraits painted of themselves. Sixty of the best portraits of these proud citizens of the Golden Age are now on view at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague.
The new self-awareness and self-confidence of the Dutch burghers that came with the tremendous wealth and independence of spirit and innovation that marked the Golden Age also created a new tension in the balance between the individual and the greater common whole. Often the reason for commissioning a portrait was a public or social occasion, such as a marriage or a professional achievement.
But even on such occasions, the artist had to preserve the individual nature of each person in the group. The young Rembrandt Van Rijn, in fact, established his reputation as a fine portrait painter precisely by demonstrating his ability to unify a group of individually portrayed men into one tight pyramid of onlookers, who are focussing on one event: the gruesome dissection of a hanged man's arm in the famous 'Anatomy lesson of Dr Tulp'.
Couples
Even when individuals are portrayed solo, there is usually some reference in the portrait to the person's family or public life, even if only to show what the person's fashion tastes are. Often a single portrait is half of a double portrait of man and wife. Rembrandt, once again, masterfully resolved this duality by joining a husband-and-wife team in a single action in one painting: the shipbuilder Jan Rijcksen looks up as his wife Griet Jans hands him a note.
One of the most beautiful portrayals of a couple is Frans Hals's portrait of the affectionate newlyweds Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen. Life has truly smiled on this attractive pair and together they are smiling back.
Babies
At about the same time Hals, the single greatest portrait artist of his day, also painted the child Catharina Hooft and her wet nurse. The family was so wealthy that Catharina's parents could afford to paint her individually, in an exquisite and very expensive outfit to boot, rather than just as part of a large family portrait. Only the wealthy could afford to have themselves portrayed, unless one had the fortune to have a painter in the family like Jan de Bray.
He painted his father and mother several times. Jan's father, his teacher Salomon de Bray, in turn painted a touching portrait of the baby twins, his niece and nephew Clara and Albert. It is an unusual portrait showing only babies, whose faces have hardly yet formed, and yet they are individuals already. But they are held together through their glances and the golden boat that cradles them.
Ancestors
These paintings not only give esthetic pleasure, they also provide historic insight into the feelings, ambitions, tastes and life-styles of the people portrayed. Jan Miense Molenaer's portrait of his family may not be a masterpiece, but it is an engaging attempt to tie together a group of individuals making up one family.
Each person in the foreground is singing or playing an instrument, as part of a harmonious concert of the living, while the departed members of the family, some of them several generations gone, look on from a double row of portraits-within-a-portrait.
The dead ancestors were clearly still 'in the picture' in the 1630s when this painting was made - just as in our own time this long deceased family of 17th-century music lovers continues to entertain us and to communicate with us, holding up a mirror for us while at the same time telling us who they are.
The exhibition 'Dutch Portraits - The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals' in Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Netherlands, runs from 13 October 2007 until 13 January 2008.
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A close look at the painting shows rough, almost hap dash brushwork, particularly around the hands (Rembrandt painted the buttonholes with his bare thumb, and up close you can actually see his thumb prints), yet from a distance it all uncannily falls into place in perfect accuracy. The two men, the artist and Jan Six, knew each other, socialized even, and given the sitter's knowledge and interest in art, it is not unthinkable that he may have contributed an idea or two for the portrait.
Instead she turned to Rembrandt's famous pupil Govert Flinck. There is such a strong contrast between Flinck's idealized and allegorical portrait of Margaretha and Rembrandt's portrait of Jan Six only one year before that it is obvious the husband and wife portraits were never intended to hang side by side. The Mauritshuis has reserved one entire wall for Jan Six alone. |
Tags: anatomy lesson, dr tulp, dutch, exhibition, frans hals, golden age, gover flinck, jan six, mauritshuis, portraits, rembrandt, seventeenth-century