Portrait of a Man, probably a Clergyman

Entry

Palamedesz became one of Delft’s leading portraitists after the death of Michiel van Mierevelt in 1641.³ The majority of his dated portraits are from the period between 1645 and 1665. The present one is related in style to the work of Palamedesz’s presumed teacher Van Mierevelt. When this painting was acquired for the Rijksmuseum’s Department of Dutch History in 1967, the sitter was identified as the Leiden theologian Jacobus Trigland (1583-1654). The age corresponds with Trigland’s, and there is a slight resemblance to his features as shown in other portraits of the theologian.⁴ However, the identification was rejected by Pieter van Thiel after comparison with an engraved portrait by Willem Jacobsz Delff of Trigland at the age of 53, which shows that the theologian was already bald in 1636.⁵ The sitter was probably a clergyman from Delft.

Ekkart has suggested that he may be the pastor Dionysius Spranckhuijsen, who was born in 1585 and lived in Delft from 1625 onwards, whose features are known from a print of 1641 by Crispijn van den Queborn.⁶ Spranckhuijsen’s death in 1650 might explain why so many versions of his portrait were produced in that year. Although Ekkart’s identification is an appealing one, the resemblance between the sitter in the present portrait and Spranckhuijsen as he appears at the age of 56 in Van den Queborn’s print is not that close, especially as regards the hair. Moreover, the Delft preacher was a year younger than the man in the portrait. The identification of the sitter as Spranckhuijsen must, therefore, remain hypothetical.

There are several versions of this portrait, most of them signed at centre right, instead of at upper right as in the present painting. The most sophisticated one was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1960.⁷ The age of the sitter inscribed on that painting of 1650 is 64, that is two years younger than in other versions, but the last digits of the date appear to have been overpainted, which suggests that the first version dates from 1648. Several variants are in Aachen and in private collections.⁸. In a version that is signed and dated at upper right, as in the Rijksmuseum painting, the composition has been reduced.⁹ A difference between the present painting and other versions is the occurrence of three buttons on the sleeve at lower right.

The awkward execution of the sitter’s face, with his relatively large eyes and strangely attached earlobe, makes an attribution to Palamedesz or his workshop doubtful. The Rijksmuseum version should therefore probably be considered a copy.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

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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. 231.