F RANS P OURBUS !"#$ %&'()#*
It is worth noting that the use of a signature by portrait painters was still relatively uncommon in the southern Netherlands in the late sixteenth century, and the extravagant way that Pourbus consciously identifies his own hand in this, his very first year as a member of the guild, must reflect his high level of confidence and pride in his work. It is also interesting that Pourbus did not feel the need to sign the companion portrait of his wife (fig. 1). Apart from our portrait, additional examples of his calligraphic signature are his bust-length Unknown Man of 1591, (Temple Newsam House, West Yorkshire), his portrait of Frans Francken the Elder, (Ufizzi, Florence), c.1591, and finally, a similarly foliate calligraphy can be seen on a letter depicted in his portrait of Nicolas de Hellincx, Councillor of the King, 1592, (Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp), and on his portrait of Pieter Ryckaert, 1592 (Groeningemuseum, Bruges). The other fascinating aspect of the signatures from 1591 – 1593 are that he sometimes spelt his first name in full as Francisco. The added gravitas from using the full Latin form of his name would surely have appealed to the twentytwo year old artist. However, by the time he had left Antwerp to work at the courts in Brussels, Mantua and Paris, he thereafter only intermittently signed his work, and even then it was in a simpler roman script, for example as seen on the full-length portrait of Louis XIII (cat. no. 11). Unfortunately there is no other information available to help us identify our sitter or his profession. That he was a man of means can however be evidenced by the exquisite costume of his wife, whose detailed lace cuffs, ermine piping and silk petticoat reveal a woman determined to display her resources.
fig. 1 Frans Pourbus the Younger, An Unknown Lady aged 54, 1591, oil on panel, 39 ¼ × 29 in.(99.7 × 73.7 cm), © The Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco. The pair of portraits were sold separately and parted after the Pommersfelden sale in 1867.
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