Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (19.1978)

.g) Formerly as a work by an unknown Dutch painter of the 2nd half of the XVIIth c. A. Chu-
dzikowski ascribed it to Nason, although the signature was then unknown1. In the MMO,
attributed to Nason, after the reading of the signature (without the date). According to
A. Dobrzycka this painting is by far less valuable then a well known portrait of the Count
Johan Maurits by J. de Baen (Coli. Mauritshuis), the composition is clumsy, the proportions
distorted1.

h) The iconographic concept of the portrait derives from several earlier sources like the portrait
of the Count by G. Flinck of 1658, known from a print by C. van Dalen (cf. van Loon Nederl.
Histor. Prenten, II, p. 442) or by A. van Dyck of 1634 (The Lichtenstein Coli. in Vienna).
Nason had already portrayed the Count (on the basis of an archive note discovered by Bre-
dius — RKD). In the note to items belonging to a widów of Abel Eppensz. van Mensenburgh
done on the 3.VIII.1661 on the occasion of her second marriage with a painter D. Wijntrack,
a portrait of Johan Maurits van Nassau painted by Nason was mentioned. This might be
the same painting as the one on sale "De Yries" in Amsterdam on 15.XI.1853 and later
in 1867 at the exibition in Amsterdam (no. 139).

The composition, typical for Nason's works of the sixties, is close to that in the portrait
of Willem Frederik Nassau-Dietz. It derives from the popular in the Hague, in the first
half of the XVIIth c. images of the Orange officers a specialty of van Revensteyn's studio.
Modified by the influence of Honthorst it belongs to the "canon" works of Nason in the
field of portraiture in the great style with the heroic notions, parallel to the Italian Renais-
sance portraits aWantica. The antiąue costumes and mythological attributes are replaced
icre with the elements of knightly armament (cf.: S. Gudlaugsson, Ikonographische Studien
iiber die holldndische Malerei..., Wurżburg, 1938, p. 14). Thus, a tournament helmet with
feathers, on which Johan Maurits rests his hand can be understood as an emblem of his
virtues (i.e.: cardinal virtues— cf. "Miscetur decori virtus", in: J.W. Zincgreff Emblema-
tum ethico-politicorum..., Heidelberg, 1619, no. 54). Another symbolical element of his
armor — points not only to his main occupation and the field of the reputation—but
also stresses his best virtute: Fortitudo (on armor see: G. Heinz-Mohr, Lexicon d. Symbole,
s.l., 1972, p. 295).

i) 1. Olsztyn 1965, p. 9, no. 5.

No. 9 Portrait of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (fig. 18)

a) o.c. 232x171 cm.; MNW, inv. no. 187142

b) sign. "PNason f. 1666" at the right side of the picture (P and N in Monogram)

c) Till 1945 in the palące collection in Słońsk (Sonnenburg); acquired by the MNW from pri-
vate hands in 1946.

d) good; restored.

e) A reduced version of this picture showing the count in an arrangement to the knees (fig. 19)
is preserved in the coli. of Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels (cat. 1927,
no. 321). Possibly the same portrait as recorded at the auction — "J.F. de Vinck de Wesel",
Antwerp 16.VIII.1814, no. 224; "Baron de Vinck d'Orp", Brussels 28.V.1827, no. 56. Another
replica, identical with the Brussels picture is preserved in the' Hague Paleis Noordeinde,
in Groene Eetzaal (inv. no. 212), and was wrongly considered by W. Martin and E. Moes
(Oude Schilderkunst in Nederland..., Den Haag, 1914) a work by Jan de Baen. One more
version of the Brussels picture was noted at the auctions: in the Hague (25.V.1772, cat.
no. 80), in Amsterdam (17.IV.1783, cat. no. 171) and again in the Hague ("J. Bergeon",
4.XI.1789, cat. no. 27). It could heve been a picture from the coli. of a Hague painter Matheus
Verheiden, mentioned by Weyerman (op. cit., p. 334). In the archives published by F. Obreen

34