64 - Nicolaes Eliasz PICKENOY (1590-1653/56), attributed to

Nicolaes Eliasz PICKENOY (1590-1653/56), attributed to Presumed portrait of Wolfgang-Guillaume de Neubourg, c.1630 Oil on panel. H_102 cm W_67.5 cm Cracks, old restorations. Provenance : Bourbon-Busset family, Château de Busset, traditionally portrait of the Duke de Neubourg by van Dyck. Private Swiss collection since the 1980s. Our beautiful portrait is fully in the tradition of Flemish portraits of the first half of the 17th century. Since the end of the 15th century, the the portrait has undergone a gradual evolution: first integrated into religious scenes religious scenes in the form of donors or concealed self-portraits of the artist, but gradually became truly autonomous during the 16th century. Artists such as painters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Corneille de Lyon and François Clouet Clouet contributed to the development of the genre, while maintaining monumental compositions were reserved for sovereigns or exceptional commissions. or exceptional commissions. The 17th century marked a profound transformation in the status of the portrait in European art. Artists such as Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy and Antoine van and Antoine van Dyck helped to showcase the elite of the upper bourgeoisie and aristocracy. aristocracy. Their portraits gained in monumentality and became veritable the social prestige of their patrons. Painted on a panel more than one meter high, our painting bears witness to remarkable care in execution. The treatment of the costume reveals great delicacy, while the hands, of which Pickenoy was a specialist, adopt a particularly a particularly complex and virtuoso position. The face receives treatment: executed in fine glazes, it retains, despite the restorations restorations, it retains all the psychological depth and presence of the model intended by the artist. Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy was a painter based in Amsterdam, whose reputation his reputation on portraits of the great personalities of his time. of his time. He collaborated on several occasions with Rembrandt, who was his studio neighbor at the time. and established himself as one of the major portraitists of the Dutch school school of the first half of the 17th century. Our painting is to be compared with the various known portraits of Wolfgang Wilhelm of Palatinate-Neuburg by Antoine van Dyck. Wolfgang Wilhelm of Neuburg (1578-1653) was a German prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Roman Empire from the powerful House of Wittelsbach. His reign was marked by his conversion to Catholicism in 1613, and by the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War, which permanently divided Europe between Catholic and Protestant powers. The Duke's court was organized between political tensions and aristocratic refinement. aristocratic refinement. A cultured prince and important patron of the arts, he maintained ties with the great artists of his time. One anecdote has it that he came to the aid of Peter Paul Rubens Peter Paul Rubens, who was caught up in a popular riot during a trip to Spain in a trip to Spain in 1624. Portrayed on several occasions by Van Dyck, Mierevelt and, more recently Johann Spilberg, Wolfgang-Guillaume demonstrates his understanding the importance of the princely portrait as an instrument of representation and political propaganda. Our painting would thus be one of the few early early representations of this prince.