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拍品专文
The present work is one of only three known family portraits dating from the 1660s that can be securely given to Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh. Each of these paintings is set apart from Sorgh's portraits of the 1640s by the greater prominence given by him in the 1660s to the setting, in order to convey the social standing of the sitters. In the present work, the family is seen sitting on a terrace looking out onto their country estate. The trend after mid-century for a more informal, genre-like conception of group portraiture was ideally suited to Sorgh - the servant girl, here seen offering a basket of fruit to her mistress, was first used by Sorgh in his paintings of shoppers at the vegetable and fish markets in town squares.
As well as offering an exquisite portrayal of a family of local prominence, Sorgh underlined the respectability of the sitters by making clear but subtle references to their fine morals. As E. De Jongh describes in his article 'Grape symbolism in paintings of the 16th and 17th Centuries' (Simiolus, 7, 1974, pp. 166-91), artists used fruit in their compositions in symbolic reference to the fruitfulness of marriage (with grapes, specifically, suggesting the chaste quality of love within marriage). Although Sorgh has not used grapes, and the fruit in the bowl is unidentifiable, the symbolic metaphor is the same. In addition to this, as Liane Schneeman notes (op. cit., p. 176), the solitary leaf on the terrace floor which draws attention to the ivy-covered wall in the background, expands the marriage symbolism to include a reference to marital fidelity. This sub-text helps to convey the message of the morality and good-standing of this family within their local community in language designed to be understood by a contemporary viewer, and redolent of Protestant sobriety.
As well as offering an exquisite portrayal of a family of local prominence, Sorgh underlined the respectability of the sitters by making clear but subtle references to their fine morals. As E. De Jongh describes in his article 'Grape symbolism in paintings of the 16th and 17th Centuries' (Simiolus, 7, 1974, pp. 166-91), artists used fruit in their compositions in symbolic reference to the fruitfulness of marriage (with grapes, specifically, suggesting the chaste quality of love within marriage). Although Sorgh has not used grapes, and the fruit in the bowl is unidentifiable, the symbolic metaphor is the same. In addition to this, as Liane Schneeman notes (op. cit., p. 176), the solitary leaf on the terrace floor which draws attention to the ivy-covered wall in the background, expands the marriage symbolism to include a reference to marital fidelity. This sub-text helps to convey the message of the morality and good-standing of this family within their local community in language designed to be understood by a contemporary viewer, and redolent of Protestant sobriety.