Erinringar om ett forsvunnet portrait av Axel Oxenstierna målat av David Beck
Titel:
Erinringar om ett forsvunnet portrait av Axel Oxenstierna målat av David Beck
Auteur:
Danielsson, Arne
Verschenen in:
Konsthistorisk tidskrift
Paginering:
Jaargang 61 (1992) nr. 4 pagina's 145-151
Jaar:
1992
Inhoud:
The best work David Beck painted during his stay in Sweden (1647-51) is the late half-length portrait of the chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, who was then 67 or 68 years old (Fig. 1). Surprisingly enough, an examination of the thirteen extant copies of Beck's portrait of Oxenstierna reveal that four of them (cf. Fig. 2) are not based on this late original, but must have been copied from another, earlier, painting. Common to these four, and lacking in all the others are the clearly-depicted drooping moustache, the slight smile (the corers of the mouth curve slightly upwards), the fact that the upper part of the ears are hidden by the hair (not standing out against the calotte), that the points of his collar form a curve at the front (not two straight lines at an angle) and that the tasselled cord knotted round the collar is depicted. Even though the original is lost, we are fortunately able to form an idea of what it was like thanks to a copy that has survived (Fig. 4, in private ownership). It is a halflength portrait (from the hips), and at first sight the pose and the clothing seem greatly to resemble the late original. However, a closer examination reveals that the two versions are different in character and belong to two quite different schools. Instead of a penetrating Dutch portrayal of character against a neutral background, Dutch realism and free brushwork, we find an imposing official portrait against a pompous background made by a painter of the traditional school. The fact that this copy gives us a notion of what the lost original was like makes it possible to reconstruct the following series of events. Shortly after his arrival in Sweden Beck, whose salary dated from the beginning, of January 1647, was commissioned to paint Axel Oxenstierna in addition to the task he already had of painting Queen Christina's portrait, of which only a copy is extant (Fig. 5). As early as 1641 Oxenstierna had taken steps to secure for the court the services of a competent continental artist through the good offices of Michel Le Blon, an art-loving political agent in Amsterdam. When Beck finally arrived in 1647 the Chancellor must have been anxious to have his portrait painted as soon as possible. The portrait reproduced here (Fig. 4) gives us a good indication of the result. The portraits of the Queen and Oxenstierna were both executed in the traditional style that had been typical of the art on the continent and in Sweden since the 16th century. Its characteristics are a vertical, mainly frontal presentation, and a pose proclaiming an attitude of distance; they lend the portrait an air of dignity. This impression is heightened by the pretentious props (the hangings, the cloth-covered table, etc.). Some years later, in 1650 or 1651, Beck was commissioned to paint a “replica” of Oxenstierna's portrait for the Queen, but in a smaller format, from the waist only. It was to be completely reworked. This new portrait, painted with penetrating Dutch realism, captures a reflection of the Chancellor's personality, his wisdom and his acumen (Fig. 1). Queen Christina could then take to Rome a reminder of the man for whom she never ceased to express her respect and appreciation, a man who had been not only her teacher and adviser, but also, as she herself said, like a second father to her (Stolpe 1988, p. 156f.). These two portraits of Axel Oxenstierna — the traditional and the realistic — are thus characteristic of the beginning and the end of David Beck's work in Sweden.
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