EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Dutch Royals Are Artists

I received a message from the Rijksmuseum that their superlative site, the Rijkstudio, now has a collection of Dutch royal portraits. Anyone who has seen on EPPH how portraits of British, Italian and French royalty resemble the artist might wonder whether the Dutch did the same. After all even the cream of American royals do  - Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson, for example. I checked the Dutch and sure enough all their royal portraits for which I could find the artist's self-portrait resembled the artist, the royal face fused with the creative one. Take a look at the pair above. On the left is Maurice, Prince of Orange by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt; on the right, an engraving of van Mierevelt.

Occasionally a specialist sees facial similarity in the work of the artist they study. One such is a fellow blogger, Maaike Dirkx from Rembrandt's Room. This is what she says about Van Mierevelt's portraits:

"In Van Mierevelt’s entire oeuvre facial measurements and proportions were consistent, so much so that it appears that he used a prototype for both male and female faces although he would adjust this prototype for each client in such a way that the portrait bore a good resemblance."¹  

Will the Rijksmuseum inform their visitors that their royal portraits are more creative than they thought? I doubt it though it would make looking at them much more interesting.

 

1. Dirx, "Michiel van Mierevelt’s portrait business" at Rembrandt's Room, posted online Oct. 3rd 2013, retrieved May 8th 2014.