Tuesday, January 12, 2016

European character studies and idealizations, 17th century

Cornelis Bisschop
Young woman and Cavalier
1660s
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Battista Agucchi wrote a 17th-century Treatise on Painting. He explained that artists are obliged to observe nature, but never for the purpose of mere representation. Their job is to look at nature, and then improve it. Painters are not slavish copyists but divine creators 

"We do not wish to deny the proper praise to painters who paint excellent portraits. True, the most perfect practice calls not for seeking to depict what the face of Alexander or of Caesar might have been but rather for seeking to depict what a king and a magnanimous and strong captain should be. Nonetheless, the most valiant painters, without straying from likeness, have aided nature by art and represented faces more beautifully and more comely than the truth, showing that even in this sort of work they can determine how nature would have added more beauty to their subject in order to perfect it."   

Sébastien Bourdon
Portrait of Countess Ebba Sparre, companion to Queen Christina of Sweden 
1652-53
National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Alonso Cano
Imaginary portrait of an ancient Spanish King
1640
Prado

Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Zeger van Hontsum
ca. 1630
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt
Portrait of a Lady of the van Beijeren family
ca. 1620
Prado

Carlo Ceresa
Portrait of a man
ca. 1645-50
Prado

Andrea Vaccaro
Santa Águeda
ca. 1635
Prado

Govert Flinck
Portrait of a man
1645
Metropolitan Museum of Art

José García Hidalgo
María Luisa d' Orleans, Queen of Spain
1679
Prado

Giovanni Battista Gauli
Portrait of a woman
1670s
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Salvator Rosa
Architas of Tarento, Philosopher
1668
Prado

Pietro Negri
Vanitas
1662
Prado

Spanish painter
Portrait of a youth
17th century
Prado

Gerard ter Borch
Portrait of Petronilla de Waert
1670
Prado