Pair of portraits of Pieter Paling and Josina van Foreest

General information
Original location Alkmaar, Provenhuis/Hofje Paling en Van Foreest (Almshouses)
Current location Alkmaar, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, inv. nos. 021085 and 021084
Provenance Still in possession of the Stichting Provenhuis Paling en van Foreest, on loan to Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar since 1875
Artist Maarten van Heemskerck (copy of)
Date 1540-1541 (originals)
1600-1625 (copies)
Material Panel
Dimensions 110 x 82 cm
Visual elements
Short description Pair of portraits of a married couple. The woman on the right panel, her husband on the left, depicted half-length, standing behind a table, turned towards each other.
Depicted pilgrim (left panel)
Personal information
Name Pieter Claesz. Paling
Social status / profession Member of the Alkmaar city council; burgomaster of Alkmaar (several times)
Coat of arms Top right: early renaissance shield - in green three silver crosses, 2-1 (in groen drie zilveren kruisjes 2-1)
Pilgrimages
Attributes Jerusalem pilgrimage Palm in right hand
Death
Date of death 21 March 1546
Location of grave Alkmaar, Church of St Lawrence (Grote kerk)
Image of grave Floor slab of the couple in St Lawrence's Church. See also the description of the slab under MeMO ID 361
Additional information
General remarks It is unclear whether his wife Josina van Foreest went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem with him. She does not show attributes of the pilgrimage on her portrait, but Pieter Paling's gravestone, on which she appears as well, carries the attributes of the Jerusalem pilgrimage. It could suggest that these attributes concern her as well.
Hoogewerff considers the portraits as replicas, made for the Provenhuis that was founded in 1540 by the couple; the originals disappeared after an auction in 1922 by Fiévez in Brussels. There is another seventeenth-century copy of the portrait as well, but without the coat of arms: see the RKD description.
Literature
  • Bruyn, J., 'Vroege portretten van Maerten van Heemskerck', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 3 (1955), pp. 27-35
  • Hoogewerff, G.J., De Noord-Nederlandse schilderkunst, 5 vols. (Den Haag 1936-1947), vol. IV, p. 354
Back to top
Disclaimer:
2012: web design by Charlotte Dikken and Bart Holterman (UU). This website was tested and works on Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox and is best viewed on a fully maximized screen. Some of the features on this site use JavaScript.
This page was last updated on: .