Gems from the World of Painting
Some people are adamant about their enthusiasm for portraiture. But others declare that they would never dream of displaying a stranger on their livingroom wall. Then, if you point out the superb portraits by Rembrandt and Frans Hals, they answer, "Yes, but that's art!"
Unknown is unloved
The artistic value of 'ordinary' portraits should not be underestimated. As this issue of the Journal makes clear. But for some, there's nothing interesting about that anonymous face on the wall. Strange, actually. After all, the human figure is one of the world's most exciting creations. And why should a still life with cheese on a plate and crockery be any more interesting than a portrait of a person?
One possible answer is that the man or woman in the portrait is seen as an intruder into the home. Yet people invade our livingrooms everyday via the television screen. Moreover, they move about and often address the viewer directly. These trespassers could hardly be more lifelike. Or perhaps they could. Is the seventeenth-century portrait more 'real' than a television presenter? It would be the greatest compliment that a seventeenth-century painter could ever wish to receive.
Since ancient times, painters have attempted to depict what they saw as accurately as possible. A lifelike portrayal of the human figure was considered the most difficult in the seventeenth century. Yet many painters of the period were extremely adept in the genre. So adept in fact, that their models are still seen as 'real' today. According to the anti-portrait lobby, Rembrandt and Frans Hals had actually got it wrong: they were not painting people, they painted art.
Artistic qualities
'But what's so beautiful and artistic about a portrait?' the portrait sceptic asks. Well to start with, portraitists had the same specialist skills and artistic talents as their colleagues. So that composition, use of colour, light and dark effects, touch, palette, rendering of materials - everything that makes a painting a masterpiece - applied equally to portraiture. Frans Hals had a completely different touch to Rembrandt, but both were able - in their own individual ways - to achieve an accurate rendering of the material. Because why shouldn't portraitists be able to paint as brilliantly as still-life painters or marine specialists?
Only their subject matter differed. And even that only partially. Because portraits often include wonderful miniature still lifes or a group of books delightfully arranged on the table. Also depicted are costly jewels and timepieces. And don't forget the setting in which the subjects are placed. Some portraits are almost genre-like: a portrait of a child playing kolf, for example, or a family in an interior. Other portraits are barely distinguishable from landscapes, except for the presence of the figures. A simple background has its advantages, however. A prominent person set against a plain background can sometimes project the personality of the figure far more successfully and cause the viewer to stop and reflect. The man on the cover of this issue of the Journal by Jan De Bray is an excellent example. This is no ordinary person. This man has personality, and it's as obvious as if he were standing there in the flesh.
Seventeenth-century portraits are works of art like any other painting; it's just the subject that differs: here it's people of days gone by.
Decorative
'But would they look good in the home?' The portrait sceptic throws a final trump card on the table. Well, I'm sorry to have to say, but there's a portrait to suit every home. As demonstrated by the most unlikely of matches, discussed elsewhere in this issue: a portrayal of a tyrant from ancient history, painted by Johannes Moreelse, fits in so well with the steel ceilings of its current ultramodern domestic setting, that both resident and architect are ecstatic. One tremendous advantage of portraits is the ample choice. Both in quality, price and subject. Portraits vary from the stately to the jubilant and elegant; they occur in monochrome tints and brilliant colours; they may show rich, patrician merchants, melancholy scholars or cheerful ladies. There are powerful portraits which can dominate a room and gentle, modest pictures that only attract attention if the eye happens to fall on them.
Historical perspective
Portraits also have another, additional dimension. They take the viewer on a journey through history. Through the man or woman in the portrait, the seventeenth century comes to life - far more than in a depiction of flowers or a landscape. With the subject we enter an exciting and crucial period in Dutch history. In the seventeenth century the Dutch provinces became a nation. The wealth and the mentality of that age have reverberated through the centuries and continue to influence our behaviour today. The Dutch Republic was the first liberal country in Western history. A country in which ordinary people could take advantage of unprecedented opportunities. Piet Hein's glory is comparable to that of a modern-day international footballer: from street urchin to popular hero. Only fitting, then, that today's football fans sing their team's praises with an anthem to the capture of the Silver Fleet.
Price level
Whatever the portrait sceptic may say, portraiture is undergoing a major reappraisal. Rembrandt and Van Dijck are filling the museum galleries and art historians have begun to return to the portrait as a legitimate field of study. On 8 July this year, the portrait of Tieleman Roosterman by Frans Hals fetched as much as 30 million guilders at a London auction. A similar sum to that paid by the Mauritshuis for a portrait of an old man by Rembrandt. Incomparable works of art such as these by the very best painters, which sell for over a million guilders, are difficult to find. In our show, prices start at f 28,000. That is certainly not expensive for a seventeenth-century painting. But given the renewed interest in the subject in the academic world and the art market, this will soon be changing. It is only now - with Old Masters regularly fetching more than a million - that we realise the degree to which we have allowed ourselves to forget the exquisite art of portraiture. It will not be long before a portrait will be equally costly.