| dc.description.abstract | This master thesis considers the relation between Dutch adult and child portraiture in the first half of the seventeenth century. The starting point of this thesis is the claim, made by some scholars in the past, that children were mainly portrayed as 'miniature adults' during the Dutch Golden Age. This claim is placed in a broader perspective by studying children's and adult portraits side by side. It is argued that portraits can contain a social message about the sitter, which informs the viewer about the child's (or those of its parents) status and ambitions for its future life. Thus social messages from adult portraiture can be emulated in child portraits. Imitation of adults, however, does not only take place on the iconographical and interpretational level. The imitation of formal aspects of adult portraiture in portraits of children is equally common. On the other hand, it must be realised that imitation is not only the result of a conscious social or formal choice on behalf of the patron or sitter, but can also be attributed to the practices and routines of the artist and to conventions that are inherent to portraiture as a genre. In this way form and content become inseperable.
This thesis starts with a full examination of the iconography, identification and context of patronage and production of Govert Flinck's (1615-1660) 'Portrait of a Boy', painted in Amsterdam in 1640 and currently in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. Subsequently, some of the adult aspects of this painting are placed in a wider context of child portraits with the same characteristics. In reverse, some alternatives to overtly adult features are also studied, such as toys, pets, differences in costume and spontaneous poses and facial expressions appearing in child portraits. Finally, ideas on childhood in the seventeenth century are discussed in relation to genre paintings and family portraits. | |
