Object data
oil on panel
support: height 67.1 cm × width 57 cm
outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)
Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt
1639
oil on panel
support: height 67.1 cm × width 57 cm
outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)
The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1616. The panel could have been ready for use by 1627, but a date in or after 1633 is more likely. The ground layer has a beige colour. Some brushmarking is visible in the figure’s face and hair, but the paint layers were mostly smoothly applied. A very large pentimento reveals that the figure’s collar and clothing were altered significantly.
Fair. There are three old cracks in the panel and the paint layers are somewhat worn.
A gilded oak frame with carved books, putti, festoons, Jacob Cats’s coat of arms and portrait busts of Homer (top left), Virgil (top right), Ovid (bottom left) and Horace (bottom right), c. 16521
? Commissioned by or for the sitter; ? his youngest daughter, Elisabeth (1618-73), with Huis Sorghvliet, 1660; ? sold with Huis Sorghvliet to Hans Willem Bentinck (1649-1709), Earl of Portland, 16 January 1675; ? his son, Willem Bentinck (1704-74), with Huis Sorghvliet, 1709; ? his grandson, Willem Gustaaf Frederik Bentinck-Rhoon (1762-1835), with Huis Sorghvliet, 1774; ? transferred to his new residence, Varel Castle, between Oldenburg and Hannover, 1819;...; owned by the warden of the Sociëteit Doctrina et Amicitia, Amsterdam;2 from whom, fl. 260, to Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam, 21 March 1834;3 by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam with the rest of his collection, 1854;4 on loan to the museum from the City of Amsterdam since 30 June 18855
Object number: SK-C-180
Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)
Copyright: Public domain
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.6 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
For Jacob Cats’s biography see the entry on Van Mierevelt’s 1634 Portrait of Jacob Cats (SK-A-258). The only substantial difference between the present portrait and that one, which also shows him bust-length and in lost profile against a dark background, is his clothing. The round collar and tabbaard worn by Cats in the 1634 portrait are visible in the present painting as a pentimento. It seems, then, that Van Mierevelt updated a replica of Cats’s portrait that he had in stock. It was probably around 1652, when Cats furnished his country estate of Sorghvliet, that the painting was mounted in the wonderful carved gilt frame that surrounds it to this day.7
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. 187.
1880, p. 102, no. 93; 1887, p. 112, no. 935; 1903, p. 175, no. 1585; 1934, p. 187, no. 1585; 1960, p. 205, no. 1585; 1976, p. 384, no. C 180; 2007, no. 187
J. Bikker, 2007, 'Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Jacob Cats (1577-1660), 1639', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10655
(accessed 10 November 2024 09:56:59).