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Lot Essay
After ruling the Austrian lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother Charles V, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor in 1558 following the former’s abdication, and successively earned the titles of King of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526, and King of Croatia from 1527, which he retained until his death.
During his reign, the kingdom faced contests with the Ottoman Empire, whose great advance into Central Europe had begun in the 1520s, as well as several wars of religion due to the Protestant Reformation. The influence of Protestantism can be seen in this portrait, the sitter modestly dressed in black and in the act of debating. The hands and face of the sitter are modelled with a typically ‘Netherlandish’ attention to detail. Charles’ gesture resembles that commonly used in Netherlandish paintings of rhetoricians, and is perhaps employed here to emphasise Ferdinand’s abilities as an orator and politician. This is exemplified in Vermeyen’s portrait of Charles V, Ferdinand’s brother, sold in these rooms on 8 December 2016, lot 10.
Having become court painter to the Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1525, Jan Vermeyen – whose oeuvre is chiefly influenced by Jan van Scorel, Jan Gossart and Bernahrd van Orley – travelled with her to Augsburg and Innsbruck from 25 May to 27 October 1530, during which time he painted portraits of various members of the Imperial Family. Several workshop copies after Vermeyen’s lost prototype of Ferdinand’s portrait are recorded, of which the present lot might represent one of the most sophisticated examples, together with the slightly differing copy in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover (H.J. Horn, op. cit., p. 479, no. A16).
During his reign, the kingdom faced contests with the Ottoman Empire, whose great advance into Central Europe had begun in the 1520s, as well as several wars of religion due to the Protestant Reformation. The influence of Protestantism can be seen in this portrait, the sitter modestly dressed in black and in the act of debating. The hands and face of the sitter are modelled with a typically ‘Netherlandish’ attention to detail. Charles’ gesture resembles that commonly used in Netherlandish paintings of rhetoricians, and is perhaps employed here to emphasise Ferdinand’s abilities as an orator and politician. This is exemplified in Vermeyen’s portrait of Charles V, Ferdinand’s brother, sold in these rooms on 8 December 2016, lot 10.
Having become court painter to the Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1525, Jan Vermeyen – whose oeuvre is chiefly influenced by Jan van Scorel, Jan Gossart and Bernahrd van Orley – travelled with her to Augsburg and Innsbruck from 25 May to 27 October 1530, during which time he painted portraits of various members of the Imperial Family. Several workshop copies after Vermeyen’s lost prototype of Ferdinand’s portrait are recorded, of which the present lot might represent one of the most sophisticated examples, together with the slightly differing copy in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover (H.J. Horn, op. cit., p. 479, no. A16).