DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0274
248
OLD WORLD MASTERS
bankers. The brilliant painter had no difficulty in getting orders
for portraits; and we may be very sure that after he had produced
such a masterly likeness as that of Georg Gisze (now in the Berlin
Museum), he must have been in even greater demand, as the numbers
of “steelyard portraits” scattered in various galleries attest.
This particular portrait in oils on panel (21 x 16^ inches) was
painted in 1536, as we learn from the right hand corner, which bears
the date and the sitter’s age, “An 1536 Aeta. 30.” Dirk Berck of
Cologne appears at half-length facing us full face from a background
of blue relieved by a green curtain with red strings. Dirk Berck is
dressed in a heavy, black, and lustrous silk cloak with a wide collar,
an embroidered shirt showing at the opening at the neck, a flat cap
(something like a biretta) at a slight angle on his head, with his hair
cut in a fringe (or “bobbed”) that nearly covers his ears. He has a
slight moustache and a full square-cut beard, which makes him appear
older than his thirty years. His small eyes are dark blue and intelli-
gent, his brows are black, his cheek bones are prominent, and his
general expression is serious and rather kindly. His hands rest one
upon the other, the right one on top, while the left, placed on the table,
holds a letter addressed to himself: “Dem Er same ‘U (2V) d fromen
Derick berk i. London upt. Stdlhof” with the trademark of his house
and the motto, “besad dz end (consider the end). A small piece of
paper lying on the red-covered table bears this Latin sentence from
Virgil: “Olim meminisse juvabit” (Hereafter I shall be remembered)
which speaks well for Dirk Berck’s estimation of Holbein and his
intelligent forecast of ours.
The portrait came from the Collection of Lord Leconfield, Pet-
worth, Sussex, and was formerly in the Collection of Colonel Egre-
mont Wyndham, also of Petworth, Sussex, and the Earls of Egremont.
OLD WORLD MASTERS
bankers. The brilliant painter had no difficulty in getting orders
for portraits; and we may be very sure that after he had produced
such a masterly likeness as that of Georg Gisze (now in the Berlin
Museum), he must have been in even greater demand, as the numbers
of “steelyard portraits” scattered in various galleries attest.
This particular portrait in oils on panel (21 x 16^ inches) was
painted in 1536, as we learn from the right hand corner, which bears
the date and the sitter’s age, “An 1536 Aeta. 30.” Dirk Berck of
Cologne appears at half-length facing us full face from a background
of blue relieved by a green curtain with red strings. Dirk Berck is
dressed in a heavy, black, and lustrous silk cloak with a wide collar,
an embroidered shirt showing at the opening at the neck, a flat cap
(something like a biretta) at a slight angle on his head, with his hair
cut in a fringe (or “bobbed”) that nearly covers his ears. He has a
slight moustache and a full square-cut beard, which makes him appear
older than his thirty years. His small eyes are dark blue and intelli-
gent, his brows are black, his cheek bones are prominent, and his
general expression is serious and rather kindly. His hands rest one
upon the other, the right one on top, while the left, placed on the table,
holds a letter addressed to himself: “Dem Er same ‘U (2V) d fromen
Derick berk i. London upt. Stdlhof” with the trademark of his house
and the motto, “besad dz end (consider the end). A small piece of
paper lying on the red-covered table bears this Latin sentence from
Virgil: “Olim meminisse juvabit” (Hereafter I shall be remembered)
which speaks well for Dirk Berck’s estimation of Holbein and his
intelligent forecast of ours.
The portrait came from the Collection of Lord Leconfield, Pet-
worth, Sussex, and was formerly in the Collection of Colonel Egre-
mont Wyndham, also of Petworth, Sussex, and the Earls of Egremont.