DOI Heft:
Nr.1-2
DOI Artikel:[Brusewicz, Lech]: Catalogue of paintings signed or ascribed to Pieter Nason in the Polish state collections
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18863#0046
picture was commissioned personally by Christoph Delphicus in the Hague, where he was
acting as ambassador to Sweden sińce 1666.
g) According to E. Celińska, it is one of the best paintings of Nason. She discovered ty-
pical features of the painter's style in the fair complexions, fine and delicate modelling,
elegant arrangement of hands, and rich and glittering garments. The formal arrangement
of the figurę of the standing girl as well as the arrangement of the hands of the other one,
were — according to her — modelled upon the Portrait of a lady from van Perponcher family
(see: No. 11), and the manner of painting costume details is the same as in the Warsaw
portrait of the alleged Frederic William von Hohenzollern (No. 13). The author reduced
the iconographic examination of the portrait to a mere statement that the boy wears a
costume of Cupid (!); nor was identification of the figures completed1.
h) The picture, rather unusual stylistically, is closely connected — both in formal composition
and iconographic concept — with another children's portrait from 1661, by Nason, represen-
ting Jacob and Willem van Liere (fig. 21). The pose of Charlotta Eleonora zu Dohna is strik-
ingly close to the attitude of Jacob van Liere; similarly the timid contrapposto of Fnediich
Christoph has analogies in the pose of Willem van Lieie, furthei increasing the similarity
between both figures which is immediately apparent due to a singular shaping of their stiff
Roman overcoats of the paludamentum type, flying spread in a decorative way. In both
pictures the manner of painting betrays inspirations by works of A. Hanneman and J. Mijtens.
The composition of the Olsztyn pictuie, howevei, represents a more maturę solution. Also
the colour rangę reducing the strong contrasts of red and blue in the costumes of the brother
and sister van Liere seems to be more fit and consistent here, it presents an attempt towards
a colour integration of particular figures and grounds. Thanks to a skillful gradation of
colours of the children's garments — from metallic b .ight, through brown-pink to azure,
as well as to the fine grey hues and reflections in the further grounds — imitate the vast
space better than the van Liere portrait. As far as the subject-matter is concerned, both
portraits belong to a group of works defined as "portrait historie" and are related, I should
think, to an exceptionally popular at that time story of a princess Granida and a shepherd
Daifilo, heroes of the bucolic play by C.P. Hooft Granida. The third scenę from the first
act of this play entered into the iconography of 17th c. Dutch painting (see: S. Gudlaugsson,
"Representations of Granida in Dutch Seventeenth Century Painting", The Burlington
Magazine, 90, 1948, p. 226—230; 348—351; 91 (1949), p. 38—43).
In the portrait of Christoph Delphicus children appear typical accessories which, beginning
with the middle of the 17th c, accompany representations of Granida and Daifilo — a
sea shell with water, a hound, some hunting eąuipment, a fountain. Their arrangement,
however, may arouse doubts whether the particular persons could be identified with the
heroes of Hooft's play. Only in the case of Amalie Luis does her interpretation as Granida
conform with the iconographic traditions of the princess representations. This is testified,
for instance, by a picture of J. van Noort from 1663 (cat. of the auction "Sale Tatarsky",
Amsterdam 26. VI. 1905, no. 22), where she appears with a shell in her hand, surrounded
by hounds, clothed in an almost identical costume of a "nymph". The image of Friederich
Dohna, on the other hand, ?t first sight, does not have much in common with Daifilo. The
hunting equipment, which he is gracefully presenting, used to be the attribute of Granida,
and his costume is far from the typical pastorał clothes known from woiks of G. Honthorst,
Moreelse, Both or A. Cuyp. However, in the second half of the 17th c, the majority of Dutch
painters abandoned previous costumological forms dressing their heroes in new "court"
attire taken over from the theptre. This is why for instance, J. Ochtervelt's Daifilo wears
a fashionable costume of a courtier and his shepheid's attribute — a stick — is lying on
the ground, timidly hidden rather than exposed (ill. in BM, 91, 1949, p. 41). In the above
mentioned picture by Nason from 1661, Willem van Liere is holding the stick in such a way
40
acting as ambassador to Sweden sińce 1666.
g) According to E. Celińska, it is one of the best paintings of Nason. She discovered ty-
pical features of the painter's style in the fair complexions, fine and delicate modelling,
elegant arrangement of hands, and rich and glittering garments. The formal arrangement
of the figurę of the standing girl as well as the arrangement of the hands of the other one,
were — according to her — modelled upon the Portrait of a lady from van Perponcher family
(see: No. 11), and the manner of painting costume details is the same as in the Warsaw
portrait of the alleged Frederic William von Hohenzollern (No. 13). The author reduced
the iconographic examination of the portrait to a mere statement that the boy wears a
costume of Cupid (!); nor was identification of the figures completed1.
h) The picture, rather unusual stylistically, is closely connected — both in formal composition
and iconographic concept — with another children's portrait from 1661, by Nason, represen-
ting Jacob and Willem van Liere (fig. 21). The pose of Charlotta Eleonora zu Dohna is strik-
ingly close to the attitude of Jacob van Liere; similarly the timid contrapposto of Fnediich
Christoph has analogies in the pose of Willem van Lieie, furthei increasing the similarity
between both figures which is immediately apparent due to a singular shaping of their stiff
Roman overcoats of the paludamentum type, flying spread in a decorative way. In both
pictures the manner of painting betrays inspirations by works of A. Hanneman and J. Mijtens.
The composition of the Olsztyn pictuie, howevei, represents a more maturę solution. Also
the colour rangę reducing the strong contrasts of red and blue in the costumes of the brother
and sister van Liere seems to be more fit and consistent here, it presents an attempt towards
a colour integration of particular figures and grounds. Thanks to a skillful gradation of
colours of the children's garments — from metallic b .ight, through brown-pink to azure,
as well as to the fine grey hues and reflections in the further grounds — imitate the vast
space better than the van Liere portrait. As far as the subject-matter is concerned, both
portraits belong to a group of works defined as "portrait historie" and are related, I should
think, to an exceptionally popular at that time story of a princess Granida and a shepherd
Daifilo, heroes of the bucolic play by C.P. Hooft Granida. The third scenę from the first
act of this play entered into the iconography of 17th c. Dutch painting (see: S. Gudlaugsson,
"Representations of Granida in Dutch Seventeenth Century Painting", The Burlington
Magazine, 90, 1948, p. 226—230; 348—351; 91 (1949), p. 38—43).
In the portrait of Christoph Delphicus children appear typical accessories which, beginning
with the middle of the 17th c, accompany representations of Granida and Daifilo — a
sea shell with water, a hound, some hunting eąuipment, a fountain. Their arrangement,
however, may arouse doubts whether the particular persons could be identified with the
heroes of Hooft's play. Only in the case of Amalie Luis does her interpretation as Granida
conform with the iconographic traditions of the princess representations. This is testified,
for instance, by a picture of J. van Noort from 1663 (cat. of the auction "Sale Tatarsky",
Amsterdam 26. VI. 1905, no. 22), where she appears with a shell in her hand, surrounded
by hounds, clothed in an almost identical costume of a "nymph". The image of Friederich
Dohna, on the other hand, ?t first sight, does not have much in common with Daifilo. The
hunting equipment, which he is gracefully presenting, used to be the attribute of Granida,
and his costume is far from the typical pastorał clothes known from woiks of G. Honthorst,
Moreelse, Both or A. Cuyp. However, in the second half of the 17th c, the majority of Dutch
painters abandoned previous costumological forms dressing their heroes in new "court"
attire taken over from the theptre. This is why for instance, J. Ochtervelt's Daifilo wears
a fashionable costume of a courtier and his shepheid's attribute — a stick — is lying on
the ground, timidly hidden rather than exposed (ill. in BM, 91, 1949, p. 41). In the above
mentioned picture by Nason from 1661, Willem van Liere is holding the stick in such a way
40