I love the expression on this guy’s face. He’s totally like, “What did that guy just say about my hat?! I love my feathers! That’s so mean.”
detail from “Banquet at the Crossbowmen’s Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Münster,” Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1648. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
You have to appreciate his maternity-doublet-with-obi-sash-with-a-big-bow look. That kind of style takes courage. Plus, nice subtle clocking on the stockings, and good view of backseam.
Wow, that’s some cabbage rose on the obi ! Worn at nipple height/ length, too.
We just can’t get carried away, imposing our 231st C POV’s on the past…
Lynn, on one hand I totally agree with you…but I also find that if we can’t imagine historical paintings into the mundane, silly, smelly, goofy, immature, snobby (etc.) ways that we would all recognize today, they remain aloof mysterious creatures in formal portraits, and not real alive human beings that lived on this same earth just like we do. Thank goodness for Frans Hals and the other painters that remind us that people in the 17th century were just as alive as we are!
you know I meant 21st C. Ugh.