Page of Pictura (An Allegory of Painting) by MIERIS, Frans van, the Elder in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Pictura (An Allegory of Painting)

1661
Oil on copper
Private collection

Frans van Mieris the Elder was after Dou the principal representative of the Leiden school of 'fijnschilders'. Apparently by the time he was born his parents stopped keeping track of the number of children they produced; he is vaguely mentioned as one of the last of twenty-three. Mieris studied with Dou, and the latter acknowledged him as the 'crown prince of his students'. The characterization is still valid. Mieris fell heir to Dou's technique and compositions.

Like his teacher, he was extremely popular with the wealthy collectors of his time. He received important commissions from Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. The latter invited him to work at his court in Vienna. He turned down the offer and, as far as we know, spent his life in his native town. A review of his oeuvre brings to mind the work of many of his contemporaries, although he always manages to keep his own personality, particularly his impeccable, highly polished finish which had a lasting effect on later painters with a passion for 'fine painting'.

Exemplary of his refined technique is Pictura of 1661. Done on copper, the tiny picture follows more or less the formula Cesare Ripa gives in his Iconologia for representing the art of painting: 'A beautiful woman ... with a golden chain around her neck, on which hangs a face mask ... [with] brushes in one hand, and in the other a palette, dressed in a lustrous garment ...' Among the attributes Ripa prescribes for the allegorical representation of Pictura that Mieris thankfully omits are the inscription 'Imitatio' written on the woman's forehead and a bound cloth over her mouth. We have seen that a few years later Vermeer also turned to Ripa's Iconologia for his Art of Painting and Allegory of Faith and that he did not follow the iconographer's instructions to the letter either.