Object data
oil on panel
support: height 27.2 cm × width 22.2 cm
thickness 0.5 cm
depth 3.5 cm
anonymous
Portrait of a man
Northern Netherlands, c. 1540 - c. 1550
Technical notes
The support is a single vertically grained oak panel, 0.6 cm thick, which is slightly bevelled at the top and bottom. Dendrochronology has shown that the plank came from the same tree as the one used for the pendant SK-A-2108, and that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1516. The panel could have been ready for use by 1527, but a date in or after 1541 is more likely. Originally the reverse of the panel was probably covered with a light-coloured ground and reddish brown marbling, only some traces of which still remain. The ground on the front of the painting is probably of a light colour (off-white), and is smooth. Although there is much retouching along the edges, remains of an unpainted edge and traces of a barbe are present on the left and right sides. A white ‘imprimatura’ with broad brushstrokes, visible through the paint layers, was probably applied over the ground layer. An underdrawing could not be revealed with infrared reflectography. The figure was reserved. In general the paint layers were smoothly applied, although some impasto was used for the leaves and the man’s collar. The face was painted wet in wet.
Scientific examination and reports
- X-radiography: RMA, no. 710, 5 April 1954
- condition report: I. Verslype, RMA, 1 March 2006
- infrared reflectography: M. Leeflang, RKD/RMA, no. NGb, 11 April 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 26 June 2006
Condition
Fair. There are discoloured retouchings and much overpainting in the face. The varnish has yellowed and has been partially removed.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1958: complete restoration
Provenance
…; from the dealer F. Kleinberger, Paris, fl. 1,930, to the museum, April 1903
Object number: SK-A-2107
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Anonymous, northern Netherlands
Entry
This portrait and its pendant (SK-A-2108) show an unknown man and his wife at bust length. The man is wearing a black cap, a white shirt with a gathered collar and a black coat. The woman has a simple black dress with a broad neckline revealing a white chemise underneath, and a white headdress. The figures are situated in front of landscapes with dark foliage. Ring rightly observed in 1913 that the relationship of the figures to the background is a little unclear.1 Behind the man is a dark stand of trees, whereas on the pendant there is a simple hilly landscape with a church spire. The horizons in the two paintings are not at the same height. Since the portraits have retained their original dimensions (based on the bevelling on the backs of the panels and the barbes on the front), and the wood of the two panels came from the same tree.2 this is an original pair of portraits, and the difference in the height of the horizons must have been a deliberate decision on the artist’s part.
The paintings contain no internal clues as to the identities of the sitters. Clearly, though, these are northern Netherlandish portrait types. Ring dated them to the 1520s, and Hoogewerff agreed, speculating that they might be the self-portrait of the Haarlem painter Pieter Gerritsz and a portrait of his wife.3 Pieter Gerritsz was a contemporary of the Haarlem artist Jan Mostaert, but there is no surviving work that can be securely attributed to him. In any event, the combination of the date of the clothing (c. 1540), whereby the woman’s headdress is set high on the crown of her head and the gathering at the neck of the man’s shirt is still rather small, giving it a rather old-fashioned look,4 and the results of dendrochronological analysis (c. 1541) indicate that the pendants were painted around 1540-50. As yet no stylistic pointers have been found to the work of known painters active in the northern Netherlands in this period.
When the portraits were bought in 1903, both were in a single frame decorated with Renaissance ornaments with diagonal Corinthian columns on pedestals flanking a semicircular arch supported by pilasters filled with a shell (fig. a).
DM/ML
Literature
Ring 1913, p. 30 (as 1520s); Hoogewerff II, 1937, pp. 502-04 (as a Haarlem master, perhaps a self-portrait of the Haarlem painter Pieter Gerritsz and his wife)
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 14, nos. 141, 142 (as c. 1520, in the manner of Lucas van Leyden); 1934, p. 13, nos. 141, 142 (as c. 1520, in the manner of Lucas van Leyden); 1976, p. 652, nos. A 2107, A 2108 (as c. 1525)
Citation
D. Meuwissen, 2010, 'anonymous, Portrait of a man, Northern Netherlands, c. 1540 - c. 1550', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4783
(accessed 20 September 2024 19:52:13).