During the seventeenth century, Dutch portraits were actively commissioned by corporate groups and by individuals from a range of economic and social classes. Ann Jensen Adams examines four portrait genres - individuals, the family, history portraits, and civic guards. Adams argues that as individuals became unmoored from traditional sources of identity, such as familial lineage, birthplace, and social class, portraits helped them to find security in a self-aware subjectivity and the new social structures that made possible the 'economic miracle' that has come to be known as the Dutch Golden Age.
Contents
1. The cultural power of portraits: the market, interpersonal experience, and subjectivity; 2. Portraits of individuals: Physiognomy, demeanor, and the representation of character; 3. Family portraits: the private arena and the social order; 4. The history portrait: comprehending self through historical narrative; 5. Civic guard portraits: personal friendships and the public sphere; 6. Portraits and the production of identity: transitional objects and potential spaces.
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