Portrait of Floris Mertensz van Alkemade (1510-1572), half-length; and Portrait of Lijsbeth van Hoeuff (b.1521), half-length

With unbroken provenance dating back to the family of the sitters, these remarkable pictures, still in their original frames, are important early examples of Amsterdam portraiture, which would go on to flourish in the city in the seventeenth century. Although inscribed with the date of 1570, Prof. Dr. Rudi Ekkart and Claire van den Donk, to whom we are grateful, concluded on a stylistic basis that the two paintings are most probably old copies after anonymous portraits that were likely painted in Amsterdam in 1570, and possibly commissioned by one of the sitters’ two sons, with one inheriting the unknown originals and the other commissioning copies after them (on the basis of photographs, private communication, June 2021). This is attested to by recent dendrochronological analysis, which concluded the date of the panels to the first quarter of the seventeenth century (Ian Tyers, September 2021, report available upon request).

Both nobles and a new elite mercantile class looked to the genre as a means of shaping and immortalising a personal and collective identity, attracting some of the most significant artists of the Dutch Golden Age. The painter of the present portraits seemingly took influence from Amsterdam artists like Dirck Barendsz. and slightly earlier masters, with the rapid use of white highlights in the faces reminiscent of the fluid brushwork of Maerten van Heemskerck. The use of cast shadows on the plain backgrounds suggests that the artist was also familiar with contemporary and slightly earlier Flemish portraits, which frequently employed similar trompe l’oeil devices that used receding shadows to create a deeper and more realistic sense of three-dimensional space.

The sitters were members of the noble Alkemade family, which descended from the ancient Counts of Holland, as reflected in their arms, depicting a black lion with a floriated crown. The familial estates had been purchased in Alkemade, south Holland, in around 1290 by Dirk van Alkemade from the lords of Leiden. The family consequently assumed the titles of viscounts of Leiden and lords of the Rhineland.

Floris Mertensz van Alkemade pursued a prominent official career in Amsterdam public life during the mid-sixteenth century. Here he held a number of important positions in the city’s government, serving as an alderman in 1544 and 1549, as a councillor in 1546 and finally as mayor of the city from 1568 until 1572, the year of his death. He also acted as excise controller between 1550 and 1555. During his time as mayor (in 1569, 1570 and 1572), van Alkemade served as President of the Weeskamer (Orphan’s chamber) of Amsterdam. In 1536, van Alkemade married Lijsbeth van Hoeuff, with whom he had two children, Nicolaas Florisz van Alkemade (1551-1624) and Jan Florisz van Alkemade (d. 1585).