Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 112.5 cm × width 88.5 cm
sight size: height 110 cm × width 85.5 cm
Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (workshop of)
Portrait of Willem I (1533-84), Prince of Orange, called William the Silent
c. 1632
Inscriptions
- signature, centre right: Faciem huius ad principale Cornely / de Vischer fecit A. a Miereveld.
- inscription, centre right, on the piece of paper: Ζεύ μὴ λάθοι σε τώνδ᾽ ὂς αἲτιος ϰαϰών (O Zeus, may he who brought this misery about not escape you)
Technical notes
The plain-weave canvas support has been lined. Though less pronounced on the left, cusping is present on all sides. The imprint of the original stretcher is apparent on all four sides, indicating that the painting has retained its original dimensions. The beige ground layer is visible at the abraded collar. The paint layers were smoothly applied with minimal brushmarking and impasto. A copper-green glaze was applied over a red base in the curtains.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 22 November 2004
Condition
Fair. There is a small loss in the upper right corner and a small area of abrasion to the right of the figure’s left eye. The varnish is very discoloured.
Conservation
- W.A. Hopman, 1874: canvas lined; varnish regenerated
Original framing
An ebony reverse flat-bottom frame1
Provenance
? Commissioned by the Admiralty of the Maas, Rotterdam, where it was first recorded in the Charter Room, 7 April 1800;2 transferred to the museum, May 1800; on loan to the Oranje-Nassau Museum, The Hague, 1926-32; on loan to Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn, since 1959
Object number: SK-A-253
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (Delft 1567 - Delft 1641)
According to Van Mander, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt or Miereveld (he used both forms) was born in Delft on 1 May 1567. He was the son of the successful goldsmith Jan Michielsz van Mierevelt, and received his early training in Delft from two otherwise unknown artists, Willem Willemsz and a pupil of Antonie Blocklandt whom Van Mander simply calls Augustijn. Van Mierevelt became a pupil of Blocklandt’s in Utrecht, presumably in 1581 at the age of 14, for a period of two years and three months. From Blocklandt he learned to handle paint and became accomplished in the art of history painting. After his master’s death, Van Mierevelt returned to his native town, where he joined the painters’ guild in 1587 and served as warden in 1589-90 and 1611-12. He married twice, in 1589 and 1633.
Much to the regret of his father, Van Mierevelt abandoned history painting in favour of the more lucrative genre of portraiture, first adhering to the style of his fellow townsman Jacob Willemsz Delff. However, few of his early portraits have survived, even fewer of his history paintings, and none at all of the kitchen pieces reported by Van Mander. In general, Van Mierevelt’s portraits show great attention to detail and little compositional adventure. His later paintings, however, are more animated, loosely painted productions.
Van Mierevelt’s enormous output (Houbraken says 5,000 portraits, Von Sandrart 10,000) began in earnest with the 1607 commission from the Delft authorities to portray the stadholder, Prince Maurits.3 In the same year, he became the official painter to the Stadholder’s Court in The Hague, a position he enjoyed for about a quarter of a century until Honthorst usurped it. In addition to his base clientele in The Hague and Delft, his workshop was regularly frequented by aristocrats and patricians from other Dutch and foreign cities. The large demand was met in part by Van Mierevelt’s assistants, who included his sons Pieter (1596-1623) and Jan (1604-33). The inventory of his shop reveals that he kept a supply of replicas of his most famous sitters on hand. His inventions were also disseminated through the reproductive engravings made by his son-in-law, Willem Jacobsz Delff (1580-1638). Van Mierevelt’s most important pupils were Paulus Moreelse (c. 1571-1638), Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584-1642), Daniel Mijtens (c. 1590-1647) and Anthonie Palamedesz (1601-73). Van Mierevelt died a wealthy man in 1641. His lucrative workshop was taken over by his grandson, Jacob Willemsz Delff (1619-61).
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
References
Van Mander 1604, fols. 281-82; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), pp. 124, 171-72; Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 46-49; Obreen I, 1877-78, p. 4; Havard I, 1879, pp. 11-82; Obreen III, 1880-81, p. 263; Havard 1894; Bredius 1908 (documents); Gerson in Thieme/Becker XXIV, 1930, p. 539; Montias 1982, pp. 38, 370; Ekkart in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 310-11; Ekkart in Turner 1996, pp. 485-86
Entry
Prince Willem I was the eldest son of Wilhelm, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (also known as Willem the Rich) and Juliana, Countess of Stolberg-Wernigerode. From his cousin René of Nassau-Châlon, who died childless, he inherited the princedom of Orange. After having served the Spanish regents of the Netherlands as an army officer and in such political functions as Stadholder of Burgundy, Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, William the Silent became the leader of the Dutch revolt against Spain. He married four times, and was assassinated on 10 July 1584.
According to the Latin inscription on this posthumous portrait, Van Mierevelt used a portrait by Cornelis de Visscher as the model for William the Silent’s face. Although De Visscher’s original has not survived, a 1614 engraving by Andries Stock showing Willem I at knee length, has the inscription: ‘Effigiem … hanc Corn. Visscherus ad vivum pinxit…’.4 In Stock’s engraving, and one from 1624 by Willem Jacobsz Delff reproducing the same portrait but at bust-length, William the Silent is shown wearing armour. In the present painting he wears a tabbaard adorned with gold braiding, and a skullcap. The tabbaard was, among other things, associated with learning in the 17th century.5 As Ekkart has plausibly suggested, Van Mierevelt probably derived the prince’s dress and the composition of his painting from a post humous portrait of William the Silent by Daniël van den Queborn, which had been commissioned by Prince Maurits for the University of Leiden in 1598 (fig. a).6 The letter on the table next to the prince is in keeping with this scholarly representation of Willem I; the Greek text, which calls for revenge, is a quote from verse 332 from Euripides’ play Medea.7 Van Mierevelt also developed a portrait type of Willem I wearing armour, known today only by way of studio reproductions, in which the costume was derived from De Visscher’s painting.8
In addition to Van Mierevelt’s own testimony that he copied Prince Willem’s face from a portrait by Cornelis de Visscher, a 1632 inventory of the stadholder’s residence at the Binnenhof lists De Visscher’s portrait with a note stating that it is ‘with master Michiel’ (‘tot mr. Michiel’).9 Several scholars have suggested that this note provides a clue for the dating of the Rijksmuseum Portrait of Willem I.10 This notion, however, cannot be supported, as a version of the present painting had been commissioned by the town elders of Delft back in 1620.11 This notwithstanding, another argument can be made for dating the present portrait to around 1632 or thereafter. As discussed in the entry on the Portrait of Frederik Hendrik by Van Mierevelt’s studio (SK-A-254), the present painting was most likely part of a series of three stadholder portraits executed for the Admiralty of the Maas. The Portrait of Frederik Hendrik in this series is based on a lost prototype from 1632. That date, therefore, forms a terminus post quem for the present painting.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 200.
Literature
Van Beresteyn 1933, p. 12, no. 52 (as Van Mierevelt)
Collection catalogues
1801, p. 47, no. 1 (as Van Mierevelt); 1809, p. 46, no. 195 (as Van Mierevelt); 1843, p. 40, no. 201 (as Van Mierevelt; ‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 18, no. 173 (as Van Mierevelt; fl. 300); 1858, p. 88, no. 192 (as Van Mierevelt); 1880, pp. 201-02, no. 218 (as Van Mierevelt); 1887, p. 110, no. 921 (as Van Mierevelt); 1903, p. 174, no. 1579 (as Van Mierevelt); 1934, pp. 186-87, no. 1579 (as Van Mierevelt); 1976, pp. 382-83, no. A 253 (as Van Mierevelt); 2007, no. 200
Citation
J. Bikker, 2007, 'workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Willem I (1533-84), Prince of Orange, called William the Silent, c. 1632', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6737
(accessed 21 September 2024 11:27:35).