DOI Artikel:
Kozieł, Andrzej: Rembrandt van Rijn and Michael Willmann, or a story of dispelling a certain myth
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14573#0186
172
ANDRZEJ KOZIEŁ
17. Michael Willmann, Self-Portrait, 1675, etching, 106 x 77 mm, Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe. Photo Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw
which was often followed in the own images created by the pupils and co-workers of the master from
Amsterdam80. This making himself alike Rembrandt's self-image after almost twenty-five years sińce he had
left Amsterdam was not paying a tribute by the Silesian artist to the Dutch master, rather a conscious référ-
ence to Rembrandt's elaborated model of a self-portrait of "a great creator at work" with an adequately ex-
posed fuli signature as a workshop's logo81. For Willmann his etched self-portrait was most of ail the element
of self-promotion and as such may be confronted with a relevant "commercial" fragment of his biography
published by Sandrart eight years later82.
The majority of Willmann's other etchings were also thought of as self-promotional, for thèse were the
copies of the most important paintings of the master from Lubiąż, e.g. Beheading of St. Paul (1661) from
the famous cycle from Lubiąż of The Martyrdoms of the Apostles (fig. 18), St. Francis of Assisi and St. An-
thony of Padua (1677) from the Franciscan monastery in Jawor, or commonly admired Assumption (1683)
80 See Bij Rembrandt in de Leer..., pp. 16-17, cat. nos. 3 (W. D г о s t), 4 (A. d e G e 1 d e r), 5 (N. Mae s?), 6 (H. D u 1 -
1 aert).
81 Willmann acted in a similar way when he made his painted self-portrait of 1682 alike the engraved portrait of Stefano
delia Bella, an eteher from Florence, reproduced in Sandrart's work (Sandrart, Teutsche Académie..., vol. 1, part 2, the table with
figures between pages 360 and 361 ). It was a conscious and profound identification of the self-portraiting painter with the accepted
model of an image of "a famous artist". See Kozieł, Rysunki..., p. 165, figs. 58, 59.
82 "...cum et inventione polleat, tanquam historiarum et Poëmatum lectioni deditissimus, et penicillo sit promtissimus vitamque
et naturalem rerum colorem qum proxime imitetur multoque vigore lumina exprimat et universali quodam pingendi studio prae-
mineat" - Sandrart, Academia..., vol. 2, book 3, p. 393. See Kozieł, Sztuka i promocja sztuki..., pp. 349-350.
ANDRZEJ KOZIEŁ
17. Michael Willmann, Self-Portrait, 1675, etching, 106 x 77 mm, Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe. Photo Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw
which was often followed in the own images created by the pupils and co-workers of the master from
Amsterdam80. This making himself alike Rembrandt's self-image after almost twenty-five years sińce he had
left Amsterdam was not paying a tribute by the Silesian artist to the Dutch master, rather a conscious référ-
ence to Rembrandt's elaborated model of a self-portrait of "a great creator at work" with an adequately ex-
posed fuli signature as a workshop's logo81. For Willmann his etched self-portrait was most of ail the element
of self-promotion and as such may be confronted with a relevant "commercial" fragment of his biography
published by Sandrart eight years later82.
The majority of Willmann's other etchings were also thought of as self-promotional, for thèse were the
copies of the most important paintings of the master from Lubiąż, e.g. Beheading of St. Paul (1661) from
the famous cycle from Lubiąż of The Martyrdoms of the Apostles (fig. 18), St. Francis of Assisi and St. An-
thony of Padua (1677) from the Franciscan monastery in Jawor, or commonly admired Assumption (1683)
80 See Bij Rembrandt in de Leer..., pp. 16-17, cat. nos. 3 (W. D г о s t), 4 (A. d e G e 1 d e r), 5 (N. Mae s?), 6 (H. D u 1 -
1 aert).
81 Willmann acted in a similar way when he made his painted self-portrait of 1682 alike the engraved portrait of Stefano
delia Bella, an eteher from Florence, reproduced in Sandrart's work (Sandrart, Teutsche Académie..., vol. 1, part 2, the table with
figures between pages 360 and 361 ). It was a conscious and profound identification of the self-portraiting painter with the accepted
model of an image of "a famous artist". See Kozieł, Rysunki..., p. 165, figs. 58, 59.
82 "...cum et inventione polleat, tanquam historiarum et Poëmatum lectioni deditissimus, et penicillo sit promtissimus vitamque
et naturalem rerum colorem qum proxime imitetur multoque vigore lumina exprimat et universali quodam pingendi studio prae-
mineat" - Sandrart, Academia..., vol. 2, book 3, p. 393. See Kozieł, Sztuka i promocja sztuki..., pp. 349-350.