- Tronie
A tronie (Dutch for a "face") is a common type of Dutch and
Flemish Baroque painting that shows an exaggerated facial expression or a stock character in costume. Typically a painted head or bust only, if concentrating on the facial expression, but often half-length if an exotic costume featured, they might be based on studies from life or use the features of actual sitters. But the image would normally be sold on the art market without identification of the sitter, and would not have been commissioned and retained by the sitter as portraits normally were. SeveralRembrandt self-portrait etching s are tronies, as are paintings of himself, his son and his women. ThreeVermeer paintings were described as "tronies" in the Dissius auction of 1696, perhaps including the "Girl with a Pearl Earring " and the Washington "Girl with a flute".The tronie is related to, and has some overlap with, the "portrait historié", a portrait of a real person as another, usually historical or mythological, figure.
Jan de Bray specialised in these, and many portraitists sometimes showed aristocratic ladies in particular as mythological figures.References
* Hirschfelder, Dagmar. "Tronie und Porträt in der niederländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts". Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2008. ISBN 9783786125679
External links
* [http://girl-with-a-pearl-earring.20m.com/Girl_with_a_Pearl%20Earring_The_Tronie.htm Good discussion with special reference to Vermeer]
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