Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)
EMBER, ILDIKÓ: Some Minor Masters on the Peripheries of Rembrandt's Circle
and die tricking of the viewer by means of illusionism. 57 The painting is a characteristic, albeit still somewhat stilted formulation of a striving that would eventually become Hoogstraten's ars poetica. He is already past the stage of skillful variations on compositions by Rembrandt, such as his Adoration of the Shepherds 5 * in Dordrecht, dated 1647, but he has not yet reached the remarkable naturalism of his 1653 Bearded Man in a Window, 59 now in Vienna. As regards the figures, similar facial types occur in works by him dated both earlier and later: the somewhat coarse, puffy features of the woman may be seen in the chubby physiognomy of a genre portrait, Small Child, dated 164 5. 60 This same facial type is again evoked, albeit in a considerably more refined version, in a painting that is significantly later: The Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin (fig. 80). 61 But it is also worthwhile to compare this painting which lies on the borderline of genre and trompe-l'oeil - this profane jest - with Van Hoogstraten's 1657 painting depicting The Crowning with Thorns, now in Munich (fig. 81 ). 62 Here it is not so much a certain kinship of the male facial types, but the similarities in the position and gesture of the background figure that is noteworthy. The conclusive evidence however is the identical resolution of the relation of the main figure to the secondary participant. On the basis of the above we may assign this newly discovered painting a place within the oeuvre of Samuel van Hoogstraten. Its date most probably falls to the period after his return to Dordrecht and setting up on his own in 1648, but probably precedes his debut in Vienna in 1651. We know that it was with one of his illusionistic still lifes that he achieved a memorable success at the Imperial court. 63 According to the record he presented three paintings, among them one trompe-l'oeil still life, in front of the Emperor Ferdinand III. This work, which earned a gold medallion, had probably been preceded by a series of important experiments, about which we have known very little until now. In all likelihood they must have been quite similar to the work introduced here. ILDIKÓ EMBER Translated by John Batki >7 C.f. Halm, A., "...dal zy de aanschowers schyne te willen aanspreken ": Untersuchnungen zur Rolle des Betrachters in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1996, p. 67. 58 Dordrechts Museum, Inv. No.:DM 1085. See Sumowski, op. cit. (Note 1 ) No. 823. 59 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Inv. No. 1282. See Sumowski, op. cit. (Note 1 ) No. 880. 60 Auctioned on two occasions: London, Christie's, 19.07.1973, No. 195; London, Christie's, 30.05.1980, No. 50. In the interval between the two auctions the panel was restored, "beautifying" the child's face, whereby the entire painting lost its original character. [Sumowski, op. cit. (Note 1 ) No. 858 shows the state after restoration.] 61 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. No. 1992.133. - I would here like to express my thanks for the photograph of the work. - W. Liedtke, who kindly allowed me to see the Hoogstraten entry of his catalogue in progress, dates this painting to around 1670. 62 Alte Pinakothek, Inv. No. 1232. 1 thank the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen for the photograph. 63 Houbraken gives a detailed description of this event: op. cit. (Note 52) 2, pp. 157-158. The experience had a lasting effect on S. van Hoogstraten's life and influenced his writings on the theory of art. For specific comments on this, see: Brusati, C. Stilled lives: self-portraiture and self reflection in seventeenthcentury Netherlandish still-life painting. Simiolus 20 (1990-91:2/3) pp. 180-182.
