Portrait busts in the Low Countries 1600-1800
Introduction
Today, they may have lost some of their popularity, but portrait busts have long been viewed as a very prestigious art form. We can still find traces of their former status in the collections of the Flemish museums. Names such as Artus I Quellinus or François Duquesnoy may not sound familiar to many people today, but in their time they were almost as famous as their painting colleagues, like Rubens, Van Dyck or Jordaens. They belonged to a select circle of artists who developed their own artistic standards, leaving their marks on European plastic arts.
This publication has been prepared for the exhibition Heads on Shoulders (12th September – 14th December 2008) at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. The exhibition is focused on portrait busts in the Low Countries between 1600 and 1800. This is the first retrospective exhibition of monumental Baroque sculpture since the Rubens Year in 1977. Heads on Shoulders is part of a series of exhibitions organised by the Flemish Art Collection, a partnership between the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Ghent and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. The purpose of these exhibitions is to promote the beauty and variety of the Flemish artistic patrimony.
Just like the exhibition, this publication invites the reader/spectator to (re)discover and appreciate the virtuosity of several Baroque sculptors from the Lower Countries
Portrait Sculpture
In the first chapter, we will discuss some highlights of portrait sculpture in the Lower Countries in the 17th and 18th century. Many noble authorities, prominent citizens and artists immortalised their names with portrait busts, preferably in precious white marble.
The six busts that we will study here, illustrate the style evolution in portrait sculpture in the Lower Countries from the 16th to the 18th century, from the first shy attempts to copy the Antique style premises to Baroque grandeur, mannered exuberance and finally disarming naturalism.
Classical Antiquity as a Source of Inspiration
The second part features some paintings and a print from the museums of the Flemish Art Collection, that show the importance of Classical Antiquity as a source of inspiration for portrait sculpture and plastic arts in general from 1600 onwards.
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Colophon
This online publication was composed by Valérie Herremans in collaboration with Siska Beele (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp), Sandra Janssens (Groeninge Museum Bruges), Monique Tahon (Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent), Stéphane Vandenberghe (Groeninge Museum Bruges) and Geert Souvereyns (Flemish Art Collection).
It has been published for the occasion of the exhibition Heads on shoulders: Portrait Busts in the Low Countries 1600-1800 (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, 12 September - 14 December 2008).