Dutch School, circa 1820

A series of thirteen portraits of the Martini family, all small half length: Willem Gillesz. Martini (1540-1629), aged 58 and Anna Martini, née Van Wassenaer van Duvenvoorde, aged 21, after unknown prototypes from 1598 and 1603; Arnoud Will

Details

Dutch School, circa 1820
A series of thirteen portraits of the Martini family, all small half length:
Willem Gillesz. Martini (1540-1629), aged 58 and Anna Martini, née Van Wassenaer van Duvenvoorde, aged 21, after unknown prototypes from 1598 and 1603;
Arnoud Willemsz. Martini (1604-?), aged 38 and Maria Martini née Van Rietwijck (circa 1607-?), aged 47, after prototypes by Anthony Palamedesz from 1642 and 1654 (Moes 4852);
Bernard Arnoudsz. Martini (1626-1657), aged 28 and Aletta Martini née Del Bene (1624-?), aged 30, after prototypes from 1654 (Moes 4854)
Antoni Bernardsz. Martini, Heer van Zwijnsbergen, aged 48 and Geertryd Martini née Buys (1659-1724), aged 43, after unknown prototypes from 1702;
Hendrik Bernard Antonisz. Martini (1693-1776), Heer van Zwijnsbergen, aged 31 and Anna Maria Emilia Martini née Van Schagen (1694-1790), aged 29, after unknown prototypes from 1724;
Antoni Hendrik Bernardsz. Martini (1728-1800), Halfheer van Zwijnsbergen, aged 50 and Eva Maria Adriana Martini née Buys (1735-1811), aged 43, after prototypes by De la Croix from 1778;
Hendrik Bernard Antonisz. Martini (1768-1848), aged 55, 1823,
all with relevant dates and inscribed with the name of the sitters; all with the coat-of-arms of the sitter, 13 in one chest,
oil on panel, 30,7 x 24 cm;
sold with Biografisch Genealogisch register van het Oud Adelijk Geslacht Martini in de Nederlanden, handwritten manuscript bound in vellum, 352 pages, folio size;
and sold with Recueil d'Armes, Alliances et Quartiers des plusieurs membres de l'ancienne Famille de Martini..., handwritten manuscript with 19 illuminated coat-of-arms, 1838-39 with 3 supplements in 1859, in a metal case;
and sold with a box containing about 50 photographs concerning the family Martini (17)

Lot Essay

The family Martini was raised to peerage in the first years of the Dutch Kingdom on 29 August 1822. This must have served as the impetus for putting together a gallery of portraits of ancestors and for compiling the genealogical registers of the family in the collections of manuscripts. Here is claimed that the family originated in Calabria in Southern Italy and had settled in the Duchy of Brabant in the 13th century. Archival research, however, has not thrown any light on the claimed Italian origin; the Nederland's Adelsboek, XLII (1949), p.45f, showed that the family orginated with Tonnis Martens in the city of Wesel. Aletta Del Bene claimed to be of French-Italian noble descent, is shown to be an embellishment of the more humble Aeltge Benen from Wesel. The next generation changed the name to Martini and it was Antoni Bernardsz (1654-1730) who obtained status by his professorship of theology at the university of Franeker and the School of Bois-le-Duc and by his marriage with Geertruyd Buys of Amsterdam. Henceforth members of the Martini family occupied important offices in Northern-Brabant and carried the title of Heer van Zwijnsbergen. The last member portrayed in the present lot, Hendrik Bernard, was one of the signatories of the Constitution of the Netherlandish Kingdom in 1814 and was member of the First Chamber of the Netherlandish parliament. The Martini family became extinct in 1942.

Probably, the information provided by the portraits and in the manuscripts of the early members of the family is incorrect. Some early members might be fictitious, invented in the beginning of the 19th century in order to elevate ancestors. The portraits of 17th century members of the family may derive from prototypes by unknown hands.