Sculptural Images in Dutch Portraiture of the Second Half of the 17th Century. Problems of Interpretation

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The article attempts to investigate the role of the sculptural image in Dutch portraiture in the second half of the 17th century. Based on the most typical works of this genre by C. Netscher (“Portrait of Mary Stuart II” (1683), “Portrait of Gertrude Huygens” (1668)), F. Bol (“Margaret Trip as Minerva teaching her sister Anna Maria Trip” (1663)), A. van den Tempel (“Portrait of Pieter de la Court” (1667)), M. van Musscher (“Self-Portrait” (1685)) the author identifies the peculiarities of the visual and symbolic interpretation of ancient and classical sculpture and their significance in the development of the biographical plot. In this way, selected Dutch portraits of the period can be read in a new light and their function in the process of constructing the Dutch viewer’s own social and cultural identity in the second half of the 17th century can be explained. An analysis of the paintings of K. Netscher, F. Bol and A. van den Tempel showed that one of the factors determining the spread of the sculptural motif in painting was a gradual change in the perception of sculpture in interiors. In the 1660s, statues and reliefs became an object of noble passion, which could be represented with prestige in portraiture, which had become fashionable. Nevertheless, the painters appeal to sculpture was not so much motivated by a desire to aesthetise the background as by a desire to emphasise the model’s status as homo nobilis (noble man), homo illuminatus (enlightened man) or homo mortalis (mortal man). In order to achieve the greatest expressiveness of the plastic image, artists usually used the technique of grisaille and compositional techniques such as scaling, hypermaterialisation, deliberate stacking and the technique of best visibility.