Rembrandt's Portrait(S)
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National GalleryTechnical Bulletin volume 31 National GalleryCompany London Distributed by Yale University Press This volume of the Technical Bulletin has been funded by the AmericanFriends of the National Gallery, London with agenerousdonation from MrsCharles Wrightsman Series editor Ashok Roy Photographic credits All photographs reproduced in this Bulletin are ©The National Gallery, London unless credited otherwise below. ©National GalleryCompanyLimited 2010 AMSTERDAM ©Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: fig.12, p. 103 All rights reserved. No partofthis publication maybe BERLIN Kupferstichkabinett ©Photo Scala, Florence /BPK, transmitted in anyformorbyany means, electronic or Bildargentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte,Berlin: fig.34, p. 21 mechanical, including photocopy, recording,orany CAMBRIDGE ©Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: fig.51, p. 31 information storageand retrieval system, without the prior permissioninwriting of the publisher. CANTERBURYRoyal Museum and ArtGallery©The National Gallery, London /courtesy of RoyalMuseum and ArtGallery, Articles published online on the National Gallerywebsite Canterbury: fig.3,p.79; fig.17, p. 85; fig.20, p. 86; fig.21, p. 86; maybedownloaded for private studyonly. fig.28, p. 88; fig.31, p. 91; fig.33, p. 92 CAVA DE’ TIRRENI Badia della SS.Trinità photo ©Antonio Biasio: First published in GreatBritain in 2010 by fig.29, p. 90; fig.30, p. 90; fig.32, p. 91; fig.34, p. 92 National GalleryCompanyLimited EDINBURGH The National GalleryofScotland, Edinburgh St Vincent House,30OrangeStreet ©National Galleries of Scotland: fig.52, p. 31 London WC2H 7HH FLORENCE Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence,Gabinetto dei Disegni edelle www.nationalgallery. co.uk Stampe ©Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino, Gabinetto Fotografico,Ministero per iBeni eAttività Culturali: fig.49, British LibraryCataloguing in Publication Data p. 29; fig.54, p. 32; fig.55, p. 34; Museo del Bargello ©Photo Scala, Acatalogue record for this journal is available from Florence –courtesy of the Ministero per iBeni eAttività Culturali: the British Library fig.38, p. 24; fig.39, p. 25; San Lorenzo©DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence: fig.6,p.10. ISBN 978 185709 495 4 KASSEL ©Staatliche Museen Kassel: fig.17, p. 107 ISSN 0140 7430 1018117 LONDON ©The Trustees of The British Museum: fig.53, p. 31; Victoria and AlbertMuseum, London Project managerJan Green ©V&A Images/Victoria and AlbertMuseum, London:fig. 41, p. 25 Editor Rebecca McKie OXFORD Christ Church, Oxford ©Bypermission of the governing Designer Libanus Press body, Christ Church, Oxford: fig.33, p. 21 Picture research Karolina Majewska and Suzanne Bosman PA SADENA, CALIFORNIA ©The Norton Simon Foundation, Production Jane Hyne and PennyLeTissier Pasadena, California: fig.4,p.100 Repro by Alta Image, London Printed in Hong Kong by Printing Express PISTOIA Duomo ©Photo Scala, Florence: fig.40, p. 25 PITTBURGH, PENNSYLVA NIA ©Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: fig.3,p.66 FRONT COVER ROUEN ©Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen: fig.1,p.78; fig.35, p. 95 Andrea del Verrocchio, TheVirgin and Child with TwoAngels, NG 296, detail of fig.18, page 16 TITLE PA GE Andrea del Verrocchio, TheVirgin and Child with TwoAngels, NG 296, photomicrographs (see page 17 for details) Rembrandt’sPortrait(s?) of Frederik Rihel marjorie e. wieseman In 2008, afull X-radiographwas recorded of concluded. He became director of the familyfirm after Rembrandt’s Portrait of Frederik Rihel on Horseback Guillelmo’sdeath in 1658, and wasappointed guardian (NG 6300) for the first time (FIGS 1and 2). The X- of the young Bartolotti children after the death of radiographassemblyrevealed another,apparently Guillelmo’swidow, Jacoba, in 1664.4 Rihel also unrelated composition beneath the grand equestrian managedtwo profitable businesses of his own, one portrait nowvisible: afull-length figure of aman, in partnership with Guillelmo’sson. Documentary orientated with the canvasturned 90 degrees anticlock- evidence suggests thathewas an ardent horseman.5 wise.Heholds astaff(?) in his right hand, and appears He never married, and apparentlynever owned ahouse to be standing in alandscape with some trees to the left. in Amsterdam. He did, however, become acitizen of the The discovery wasquite unexpected, as the visible image city on 5April 1662, very likelyinorder to fulfil the gave no evidence of masking an earlier design, and prerequisite to becoming amember of the city’scivic the painting has been well studied since its acquisition guard. In 1677, aged about 56, Rihel wasappointed by the National Galleryin1960.1 The radical difference to the prestigious post of ensign, or standard bearer between the twocompositions suggested the pragmatic (vaandrig), in the militiafor aperiod of one year.Hedied reuse of the largecanvassupport. This practice wasnot in Amsterdam on 6January1681. uncommon in the Rembrandt studio: several of his The commission to portray Rihel might have come works are known to have been painted on canvases or about through Rembrandt’slong-standing association panels thathad been used previously, including roughly with the Trips,another of the leadingmerchant- aquarter of his self portraits.2 However, the National industrialist families in the Netherlands. Rembrandt had Gallery’spainting is by farthe largest example painted twomembersofthe Trip familyin1639 (Aletta discovered to date,and appearstobethe onlyinstance Adriaensdr.and Maria Trip,widowand daughter in which Rembrandt (or anymember of his studio) respectively of Elias Trip),6 and in 1661 he painted the adopted this practice for acommissioned portrait. statelyportraits of the aged Jacob Trip (Elias’s brother) The subject of the picture,Rembrandt’sonly and his wifeMargaretha de Geer which are nowalso equestrian portrait, wasfirstidentified as the Amsterdam in the National Gallery(NG 1674 and NG 1675). The merchant Frederik Rihel by the noted Rembrandt expert portraits of Trip and de Geer were probablyordered and collector Abraham Bredius (1855–1946), based by their son Hendrick Trip to adornhis magnificent on an item in the inventoryofRihel’sproperty drawn new house on the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam, up after his death in 1681: ‘Het conterfijtselvan de completed in 1662. Trip’sclose neighboursonthe overledene te paertdoor Rembrandt’ (‘The portrait of Kloveniersburgwal were Rihel’spatrons and business the deceased on horseback by Rembrandt’).3 Rihel was associates the Bartolottis, whoalso had extensive borninStrasbourg in 1621. His father,apaper manu- business ties with the Trips. Although no specific and facturer,sent him to Amsterdam in 1642 for afive-year direct links between Rihel and the Trips have been termofemployment with Guillelmo Bartolotti, one of established, he must certainlyhave known them. In the most powerful merchants in Amsterdam. Rihel this context, it is worthnoting thatseven yearsafter retained close business and personal ties with the the forced dissolution of the Trip-de Geer monopoly Bartolotti familylong after his apprenticeship was on the importofarmsfrom Sweden in 1662, this 96 |NATIONAL GALLERYTECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 31 Rembrandt’sPortrait(s?) of Frederik Rihel FIG.1Rembrandt, Portrait of FrederickRihel on Horseback (NG 6300), probably1663. Oil on canvas, 294.5 × 241 cm. NATIONAL GALLERYTECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 31 | 97 Marjorie E. Wieseman FIG.2NG 6300, X-radiographmosaic.The composite image has been digitallyprocessed to reduce the effects of the stretcher bars. lucrativetrade wasquietlytaken over by the Rihel- Netherlands in the seventeenthcentury. Bartolotti firm.7 The Portrait of Frederik Rihel on Horseback is painted It is plausiblyassumed thatRembrandt’sportrait, on three pieces of canvassewn together,each with dated 1663, wasmade to commemorateRihel’spartici- apparentlythe same or similar weave characteristics.9 pation in the honourguard thatprovided aceremonial The upper seam runs horizontallythrough the horse’s escortfor MaryStuartand the young Prince William III bit and the pommel of the sword just belowRihel’s of Orangeontheir entryinto Amsterdam on 15 June elbow; the lowerseam runs horizontallyfrom between 1660. The architecture dimlyvisible on the left has been the bottom of the horse’sright front hoof and the top of identified as the Heiligewegspoort(since destroyed); its left front hoof.The canvasisprepared with adark the ridersinthe coach at left the prestigious visitors.8 brown ‘quartz’-type ground composed of silica with a It is ahighlyunusual portrait for Rembrandt to have little brown ochre,similar to thatused in Rembrandt’s painted: not onlyisitone of the very fewofhis paintings Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels of about 1654–6 which makereference to acontemporaryevent, but it (NG 6432) and Self Portrait at the Age of 63 of 1669 is also his onlyequestrian portrait –indeed one of just (NG 221). Rembrandt began using coarselytextured twolife-sized, or near life-sized, equestrian portraits of ‘quartz’ grounds after about 1640, and this method of ordinarycitizens (thatis, not stadholdersormembers preparation seems to have been unique to him and the of the nobility) known to have been painted in the artists in his immediate circle.10 It is not clear whether 98 |NATIONAL GALLERYTECHNICAL BULLETIN VOLUME 31 Rembrandt’sPortrait(s?) of Frederik Rihel FIG.3NG 6300, infrared photograph. the choice wasmade for economic reasons (the ‘quartz’ dark paint can be seen, for example,inthe torso of grounds used cheaper materials than the more common Rembrandt’sunfinished Portrait of aBoy of about double grounds) or aesthetic ones (the rougher surface 1655–60