One hundred Renaissance portraits at the Rijksmuseum
From October 1, 2021 to January 16, 2022, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam presents "Remember Me," the first major exhibition of Renaissance portraits in the Netherlands.
Petrus Christus - Portrait of a Young Woman - c.1470Sofonisba Anguissola - Self-portrait at the Easel Painting - 1556
Source: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Images: Petrus Christus, "Portrait of a young woman", ca. 1470. Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin -- Sofonisba Anguissola, "Self-portrait," ca. 1556. Museum-Kamek w Łańcucie, Łańcut.
The exhibition includes more than a hundred Renaissance portraits by such celebrated artists as Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Hans Memling, and Veronese, on loan from such institutions as the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Renaissance humanism made the portrait genre to experience an enormous increase in popularity during the 15th and 16th centuries, both in Italy and Northern Europe. Although religious scenes continued to maintain their importance, the new patrons sought a kind of “painted immortality” through portraiture, giving rise to some of the most famous works in the history of Western painting.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is "Portrait of a Young Woman" (ca. 1470) by Petrus Christus, a masterpiece of the Northern Renaissance, which is on loan from the Gemäldegalerie's collection for the first time since 1994. From the German Renaissance, “Remember me” includes two works by Albrecht Dürer -his "Portrait of an African Man" (1508), on loan from the Albertina Museum in Vienna, and "Young Woman in Prayer with Her Hair Dow" (1497), from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt- as well as a double portrait of Basel Mayor Jacob Meyer zum Hasen and his wife Dorothea Kannengiesser, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1516.
As for the Italian Renaissance, the Prado Museum has loaned "Marsilio Cassotti and his wife Faustina" (1523), one of the most famous paintings by Lorenzo Lotto. Of particular note is the good representation of works by Sofonisba Anguissola, a painter who has gained recognition in recent decades. Included in the Rijksmuseum exhibition are a self-portrait from 1556 and "The Chess Game," a beautiful painting from 1556 from the Raczyński Foundation in the National Museum, Poznan.

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