Amsterdam Oct 3 (BUS): A prince, a pope, an artist, a merchant – everyone wants to be remembered. About 500 years before selfies were taken, Europe’s elite had selfies so memorable. Hidden in these images from the 15th and 16th centuries, displayed in the Rijksmuseum, are pure strength and ambition.
Emperors, extravagant princes, rich merchants: they all loved to paint their portraits as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
“Europe’s rich and powerful did not want to be forgotten,” said Tako Dibbets, director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, opening the presentation of the exhibition Remember Me, according to Deutsche News Agency (dpa).
The Rijksmuseum displays an extensive exhibition of European Renaissance photographs from international collections from 1 October onwards.
Over 100 of the best known works of painters such as Hans Holbein, Albrecht Duerer, Titian and Paolo Veronese are on display. The best works have also been made available in the Museums of Basel, London, Madrid and Washington.
Around 1470, the first wave of portraiture began in Europe.
Emperors, merchants, and artists united with a deep desire not to be forgotten after death. “It’s the fear of demise,” said Mathias Opel, curator of the museum.
Shepherds wanted to be remembered. Parents wanted to remind their children or families.
But there were also other desires stuck in this vertical direction. The image of a person’s face was also meant to radiate strength, ambition, wealth, and wisdom.
Emperor Charles V, for example, was portrayed by Titian on horseback. His son, Philip II, is depicted in shining armor from head to toe.
The message was clear: Here stands the ruler.
The princes and merchants of the church also wanted it. Jean Mostart painted the first “portrait of an African man” (1525-1530) and depicts him as a powerful gentleman.
Shepherds wanted to look as favorable as possible. Therefore, they often determined the composition of the board. Precious ermine collars, gems and weapons emphasized a person’s social standing.
Dibbets, the museum’s director, said the exhibition is “also about strength and ambition, but above all about beauty.”
“Beauty was a virtue in those days,” said curator Opel.
The young woman in a painting by Petros Christus (circa 1470) wears a demure bonnet, staring before the viewer with a captivating and somewhat mysterious gaze. One of the highlights of the exhibition is the painting “Portrait of a Young Woman”, loaned by the Gemaeldegalerie in Berlin.
But with some pictures here, you also have to wonder how compatible she is with the real person.
An unknown Florentine painter painted The Lady in Red (1440-1450) with ivory skin, rosy cheeks, a cherry red mouth, as well as a very long neck and a very high forehead – half of the head was shaved.
The couples themselves also painted, such as the reformer Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora by Lucas Cranach, probably around 1525. Another notable object is the double portrait of the willful couple of Basel, “Jacob Mayer zum Hasen and his wife Dorothea Kanengeiser” (1516) by Hans Holbein of Kunstmuseum Basel .
And finally, selfies. The painters themselves loved taking pictures. Sofonisba Anguissola, who was already a world-famous painter at the time, used self-portraits, art historians believe, as a means of propaganda.
“The beauty of these masterpieces takes us to another time,” says the person in charge of the restoration. And they embody a very human longing: Remember me!
HF