RKD STUDIES

The number of paintings that have surfaced so far that meet the predicate of the meticulously and laboriously painted Porentronie is still small and represents a minority in Seybold’s œuvre. Besides following the example of the Porendenners, after the mid-1720s he was particularly inspired by Dutch and Flemish masters, whom he emulated both in style and subject matter. In the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, for example, a Tronie of a Girl constitutes a contemporary variation on Rubens’s study of a girl, commonly referred to as the portrait of his daughter Clara Serena [11-12].¹ They share striking similarities in physiognomy, which manifest themselves mainly in the shape of the eyes, mouth and nose. On the other hand, Seybold did not imitate Rubens’s cursory brushwork; here he rather reveals himself as a Porenmaler.

Seybold’s Self-Portrait in Warsaw [13] is directly associated with a gold medal of honour bearing the portrait of Joseph Wenzel I of Liechtenstein (1696-1772), which was Seybold’s reward for the completion of both this Tronie of a Girl and another Self-Portrait, now in Vienna-Vaduz [21]. The medal that the reigning monarch awarded him for these works is depicted in his right hand.² The medal was issued in 1758, which provides a terminus ante quem for the Warsaw Self-Portrait. The template for the portrait’s scale, spatial articulation and costume details was the Portrait of the Painter Theodoor van Loon from Van Dyck’s Iconography [14], which also provided the basis for Seybold’s pose and gestures, albeit with some variation. The reason why he picked Van Loon’s portrait is probably mainly semantic in nature: ‘Loon’ in Dutch means the same as the German ‘Lohn’ (wages or reward), i.e. the medal, which is the pivotal motif in the portrait. This programmatic inventiveness is something we encounter frequently in Seybold’s paintings.

Geyser’s engraving after Seybold’s Self-Portrait now in the Hermitage (St. Petersburg) but until 1812 in the possession of the descendants of Johann Gottfried Winkler (1731-1795), was described as having a nuanced distribution of light and shadow that was done in ‘Rembrand- oder spagnolettischen Geschmack’ [15-16].³ Hagedorn also referred to Spagnoletto’s manner when writing about one of Seybold’s self-portraits in his own collection.⁴ Although Garas was under the impression that Hagedorn was referring to Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747) with this ‘Spagnoletto’, Crespi’s appellation was actually ‘Spagnuolo’ or ‘Lo Spagnolo’, while the diminutive variant of this nickname was more commonly used for Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652).

Aside from his virtuosity in depicting light and shade, De Ribera was also renowned for his unembellished renderings of decrepit elderly people [17]. One of Seybold’s half-length figures of an old man, now in Warsaw, which is misattributed to Denner, is an example of this style [18].⁵ The painting is a paragon of the brutal degeneration that seems to ensue at all human levels in old age: his face stricken with the fear of death, this man gives the impression that, even with the last of his waning strength, he still wants to negotiate with his Creator about what will await him in the Hereafter. He is depicted with vanitas symbols, an hourglass and a skull, and he seems all too aware of his inevitable end. Stylistically, the painting is closely related to a half-length figure of an old man in the collection of Schloss Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart.⁶

15
Christian Seybold
Self Portrait, c. 1730
Sint-Petersburg, Hermitage, inv./cat.nr. г э 6479

Throughout Seybold’s career self-portraiture remained an important means of self-promotion. At present no less than 33 original compositions in this subgenre are known, as well as a further 40 such works from written sources. The influence of Balthasar Denner, which is evident in Seybold’s Porentronies, is also confirmed by a number of his self-portraits. Illustrative of Denner’s influence are the early ‘Poren-self-portraits’ in Mainz and Florence [19-20], and Seybold’s self-portraits in Vienna-Vaduz and Budapest [21-22], which can be assigned to his late period. Johann Kupezky’s (1665/6-1740) [23] influence is also present, as can be seen most directly in a relatively recently discovered self-portrait [24].⁷ Significantly different from Denner’s style of self-portraiture, some of Seybold’s self-portraits show a dramatic Caravaggesque chiaroscuro, which is also characteristic of many of Rembrandt’s works. The theatrical application of artificial light and the dimensions of the face in relation to the size of the composition are also typical of a youthful self-portrait by Seybold in Budapest [25]. These characteristics nevertheless also exemplify the tronie painter.

18
Christian Seybold
Old man with a sandglass and a skull
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, inv./cat.nr. 76197

Rembrandt was most famous for his lighting effects and his many self-portraits. The early, meticulous Rembrandt of the Leiden period was highly valued among collectors in the German lands for his painterly precision and highly-polished finish, but there were also many aficionados of the later Rembrandt, with his broad smears of pigment and his bristly ductus. Relatively early on, several prominent collections acquired some of his self-portraits in oil – or works that passed for paintings by his hand at the time –, including, for example, the Uffizi, Florence, in 1676, the Electoral Collection in Düsseldorf before 1719, and the Royal Collection in Dresden before 1723 [26-28].

25
Christian Seybold
Self portrait of the artist Christian Seybold (1695-1768), c. 1720
Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, inv./cat.nr. 53.429

Seybold’s self-portraits were particularly influenced by those self-portraits by Rembrandt that were within his visual range. The imperial collection in Vienna, for example, held a self-portrait of the Dutch master before 1720 [29], which was also engraved for the Theatrum, a series of prints published by Anton Joseph von Prenner (1683-1761) in 1728 showing highlights from the collection [30]. In 1735 the work was reproduced again by Prenner, together with Frans van Stampart (1675-1750), for the Prodromus.⁸ Until his death in 1736, the collection of Prince Eugen von Savoyen (1663-1736) in Vienna featured an assortment of Rembrandt prints which comprised at least three self-portraits by the Dutch master, including his Self-portrait with a Scarf from 1633 and his Double Portrait with Saskia from 1636 [31-32]. Seybold’s position as an academy painter and unofficial court painter, as well as his connection to his client and Prince Eugene’s close friend, Count Gustav Adolph von Gotter (1692-1762) [33], will have granted the painter access to this celebrated collection of Rembrandt prints. Eugen’s Rembrandt collection was eventually acquired by Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763) in 1743 for the Royal Collection in Dresden. Brühl and Seybold probably crossed paths in 1745, when Seybold was appointed court painter in Dresden.

28
after Rembrandt
Self-portrait with pen, inkpot and sketchbook, c. 1657
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv./cat.nr. 1569

A late Rembrandt Self-Portrait in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam [34] was in Seybold’s time most probably kept in the collection of Nicolas Vleughels (1668-1737), who was director of the French Academy in Rome between 1724 and 1737. The portrait may have been seen by many southward travelling artists, such as immediate colleagues of Seybold in Vienna, who could have informed him about the formal characteristics of this composition. The interpretation of the work as a self-portrait historié as the apostle Paul only dates from 1919. Thanks to its dissemination through etchings and oils, Rembrandt’s way of self-fashioning had become internationally well known. Furthermore, his style and appearance were successfully dispersed as a result of adaptations by third parties. As early as 1675, Joachim Sandrart made an engraving of Rembrandt’s portrait as an illustration for his Teutschen Academy [35], and Edmé-François Gersaint’s Rembrandt catalogue raisonné was published in 1751, with its frontispiece showing Rembrandt’s portrait taken from the Double Portrait with Saskia [36].

It was not until the middle of the 18th century that Seybold’s imitation of Rembrandt’s works became increasingly distinct. Whether he followed the general trend of ‘Hollandism’ and/or wanted to counter the already established prejudice that he was at best an epigone of Denner are possibilities that cannot be ruled out. At this stage of his career, Seybold did not imitate the often cursory brushwork of the late Rembrandt. He thus repudiated the art theoretical topos stating that aging artists change their manner from precision to a rougher style, which was said about Titian and Rembrandt, and is claimed unduly about Seybold’s stylistic development even today.⁹ Nonetheless, a number of Seybold’s self-portraits seem to deliberately incorporate details in the clothing and other motifs from identifiable self-portraits of Rembrandt; three are briefly discussed below: Seybold’s self-portraits in Nuremberg, Sibiu and Bamberg. His Self-Portrait with the ‘Wienerisches Diarium’ in Budapest deserves to be discussed separately here, considering that besides his emulation of Rembrandt, there are also strong biographical components incorporated into and narrated in the pictorial programme.

Seybold’s Self-Portrait in Nuremberg [37] stands out because of its unusually colourful and contemporary ornamental clothing, as well as its – for his self-portraits – seemingly free handling of brushwork in the parts outside the face. By virtue of the fact that the shades of light blue and green are not always invisibly blended, this piece even approaches the art of (French) pastel painters. However, the capriciously shaped headgear is comparable to the one worn by Rembrandt in, for example, his self-portrait in Vienna [29-30]. The play of light along Seybold’s right jaw line – a subtle stripe of light reflection applied to the cheek alongside the contour – resembles the same detail in Sandrart’s engraving of Rembrandt’s portrait [35]; the overall lighting introduces a reference to Rembrandt in an otherwise rococo-like stylised portrait. The streak of light, which glaringly illuminates only a section of his forehead through a gap in the rim of his hat, is an inventive visual device which he employed in the aforementioned self-portrait that long passed for a work by Denner [9], and also in several tronies, for example in a tronie of a boy in the Belvedere, Vienna [38]. Perhaps this device should be regarded as Seybold’s interpretation of what Gersaint remarked about Rembrandt’s lighting ‘des effets d’une lumiere [sic] accidentelle’.¹⁰

35
Philipp Kilian after Joachim von Sandrart (I)
Portrtaits of Michel le Blon (1587-1658), Aegidius Sadeler (?-1629), Georg Petel (?-1634), Matthäus Merian I (1593-1650), Rembrandt (1606-1669) and Karel Sotnovsky Skreta (1610-1674), c. 1675
New York City, New York Public Library

36
Jean-Baptiste Glomy after Rembrandt
Portrait of Rembrandt (1606-1669), dated 1750
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-12.288

Seybold’s adherence to the tradition of Rembrandt’s self-portraits is also evident in his Self-Portrait in Sibiu [39].¹¹ The dramatic illumination from one angle, which leaves one half of the face concealed in darkness, was mainly employed by Rembrandt in his self-portraits at the beginning of his career. However, the frontality of the composition and the palette are particularly reminiscent of Rembrandt’s late self-portrait in Vienna [29], while the framing and scale approximate a bust-length copy of Rembrandt’s Viennese self-portrait, which was in the Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden at the time [40].¹² While Rembrandt illuminated his face from the left, Seybold did so from the right. The work is close to his Self-Portrait in Nuremberg [37] in the depiction of the facial features and the expression, although the colour scheme and the contemporary costume of that portrait are far from Rembrandtesque. Although Seybold did not choose to repeat this particular array of imagery in other self-portraits of his, the artist, who appears about the same age in both works, demonstrates his chameleonic abilities by working in divergent styles while showing his awareness of the pictorial source.

Seybold’s Self-Portrait in Bamberg [41] shows a concept of light distribution which also reminds of Rembrandt. Only one part of his face is flooded with light, but the eye socket of the illuminated side is shrouded in shadow. His cloak and shirt seem to be quoted from both Sandrart’s print and Rembrandt’s Double portrait that formed the basis for Gersaint’s frontispiece portrait. Both the light on Seybold’s face and his headgear seem to depend heavily on the latter Rembrandt print.

39
Christian Seybold
Self portrait, c. 1755 or later
Sibiu, Muzeul National Brukenthal