Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Five Obscure 17th-century Flemish Portrait Painters

Jacob van Doordt
Portrait of a Prince of Denmark
before 1629
oil on canvas
Nivaagaard Museum, Nivå, Denmark

Jacob van Doordt
Portrait of Kirsten Munk with her Children
1623
oil on canvas
Nationalhistoriske Museum, Hillerød, Denmark

attributed to Jacob van Doordt
Portrait of Charles I as Prince of Wales
1624
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Gillis van Tilborgh the Younger
Portrait of a Family
ca. 1665
oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Gillis van Tilborgh the Younger
Portrait of a Family
ca. 1665-70
oil on canvas
 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 

Gillis van Tilborgh the Younger
Self Portrait
ca. 1645
oil on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Justus Sustermans
Imaginary Portrait of Isabella d'Este as Flora
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Justus Sustermans
Portrait of Cosimo II de' Medici,
his wife Maria Maddalena of Austria
and their son Ferdinando II de' Medici

ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Justus Sustermans
Portrait of Cosimo III de' Medici as a Baby
ca. 1642
oil on canvas
private collection

Justus Sustermans
Portrait of Galileo Galilei
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
National Maritime Museum, London

Daniel van den Dyck
Portrait of Antonio Canal
1647
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, West Midlands

Daniel van den Dyck
Portrait of a Nobleman
ca. 1650-55
oil on canvas
private collection

Jan de Herdt
Portrait of Franz Augustin von Waldstein
(full-length)
ca. 1675-85
oil on canvas
Muzeum Vysočiny, Třebíč, Czech Republic

Jan de Herdt
Portrait of Franz Augustin von Waldstein
(half-length)
ca. 1675-85
oil on canvas
Muzeum Vysočiny, Třebíč, Czech Republic

Jan de Herdt
Portrait of a Nobleman as Mercury
ca. 1670-80
oil on canvas
private collection
 
Venice Beach

                                       Annihilating all that's made
                                       To a green thought in a green shade.

                                                                 – Andrew Marvell

These are all thoughts – of course. At the edge of the ocean with nowhere to go,
the nearest land three thousand miles away and under different management,

the diving sun another thirty thousand times that, there is no reality,
only these parlous notions, messages, statements, stylings on the edge of extinction.

Little petillas. A kind of spontaneous zoo of human recency and arrival
and promontory variorum. Imprudent comb-over thoughts,

rigid and proud eye-catching false thoughts, little jiggling thoughts,
intricate braided-beard thoughts the product of much misplaced patience,

product placement thoughts (which are rather elementary,
and are almost a contradiction in terms), unlike myriad highly-evolved

dog thoughts (no mutts here), pushing a baby in a three-wheeled stroller
whilst running very hard in no shirt and six-pack thoughts,

this a development on the now-obsolete egg and paddle
(what it does to the infant to be impelled at such a rate into the future

whilst facing backwards like an Aeroflot passenger is not recorded –
not that forward is necessarily better), high-concept silky-swishing Afghan hound thoughts,

intrusive bum thoughts, hapless and homeless panhandler thoughts 
(a smarte carte loaded with undesirables never far to seek),

low-slung belly-dragging beagle thoughts little better
than the serpent in the Bible, holding hands Adam and Eve thoughts,

foot-shuffling Zimmer frame thoughts, "revolution in mobility" wheelchair and gravel thoughts,
pushed by most likely an illegal attendant borderline thoughts,

candy-striped T-shirt and shorts thoughts, cut-off thoughts,
paired with sometimes nothing more than a bikini top, those three-quarter length

thin and probably amphibious trousers, worn without socks, that men go in for,
suggestive of adaptability and resourcefulness thoughts,

standard over-loud mobile thoughts, ("our relationship is..."),
lying immobile on the grass on your back thoughts

(these are different), tourist thoughts, an unexpected preponderance of Russian thoughts
(though with residential qualifications), borscht belt leopard skin thoughts

dripping with gold and eccentric lamentations, dog and baby both thoughts
(these last thought to be ideally-balanced), high-stepping poodle thoughts

like a four-wheel drive with little intelligence in rough country,
furiously texting in the glare with all thumb to the pump thoughts,

being at least half elsewhere, baseball cap thoughts rife with determination,
slightly dated straw hat thoughts, reverse baseball cap also thoughts.

– Michael Hofmann (2013)