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DOI Artikel:Jaśniewicz-Downes, Aleksandra: Commemoration and family identity in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk: Portraits of Members of the Connert Family (1550-1599)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66965#0204
Aleksandra Jaśniewicz-Downes
Dublin
ORCID: 0000-0001-5639-4422
Commemoration and Family Identity
in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk:
Portraits of Members of the Connert Family
(1550-1599)
https://doi.org/10.26881/porta.2022.21.09
Słowa kluczowe: Gdańsk, reformacja, portrety renesansowe, medale portretowe, Johann
Connert, krąg Lucasa Cranacha, kościół Mariacki w Gdańsku
Keywords: Gdańsk, Reformation, Renaissance portraits, portrait medals, epitaphs, Johann
Connert, circle of Lucas Cranach, St. Mary’s church in Gdańsk
The history of portraits in Gdańsk can be traced back to the first quarter of the
fifteenth century. However, it was not until the first decades of the sixteenth
century that interest in this genre spread to wider groups of the local society. The
early sixteenth-century Catholic altarpieces, Lutheran epitaphs commissioned
in the later part of the century, and secular artworks ranging from architectural
sculpture to portrait medals and from large-scale panels to miniatures document
a growing need among various members of the community to commemorate
their appearance and social standing.
The present study discusses portraits commissioned between 1550 and 1599
by representatives of three generations of the Connert family. These concep-
tually and formally innovative artworks: architectural sculpture, epitaphs and
medals, will be examined on the formal, iconographic and socio-historical levels.
The discussion is opened by a reconstruction of the history of the Connert
family in Gdańsk. The subsequent formal analysis of the portraits is followed
by an examination of their social and confessional context. Of particular inter-
est is the coexistence of the portraits’ economic and confessional dimensions,
with an emphasis on temporal and spatial manipulations aimed at amplifica-
tion of their meanings.
Portraits of members of this influential family have previously been profiled
in studies of various aspects of early modern art in Gdańsk (Danzig), including
202
Dublin
ORCID: 0000-0001-5639-4422
Commemoration and Family Identity
in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk:
Portraits of Members of the Connert Family
(1550-1599)
https://doi.org/10.26881/porta.2022.21.09
Słowa kluczowe: Gdańsk, reformacja, portrety renesansowe, medale portretowe, Johann
Connert, krąg Lucasa Cranacha, kościół Mariacki w Gdańsku
Keywords: Gdańsk, Reformation, Renaissance portraits, portrait medals, epitaphs, Johann
Connert, circle of Lucas Cranach, St. Mary’s church in Gdańsk
The history of portraits in Gdańsk can be traced back to the first quarter of the
fifteenth century. However, it was not until the first decades of the sixteenth
century that interest in this genre spread to wider groups of the local society. The
early sixteenth-century Catholic altarpieces, Lutheran epitaphs commissioned
in the later part of the century, and secular artworks ranging from architectural
sculpture to portrait medals and from large-scale panels to miniatures document
a growing need among various members of the community to commemorate
their appearance and social standing.
The present study discusses portraits commissioned between 1550 and 1599
by representatives of three generations of the Connert family. These concep-
tually and formally innovative artworks: architectural sculpture, epitaphs and
medals, will be examined on the formal, iconographic and socio-historical levels.
The discussion is opened by a reconstruction of the history of the Connert
family in Gdańsk. The subsequent formal analysis of the portraits is followed
by an examination of their social and confessional context. Of particular inter-
est is the coexistence of the portraits’ economic and confessional dimensions,
with an emphasis on temporal and spatial manipulations aimed at amplifica-
tion of their meanings.
Portraits of members of this influential family have previously been profiled
in studies of various aspects of early modern art in Gdańsk (Danzig), including
202