German painter, part of a family of painters, nephew of Friedrich Kerseboom. He first worked in Germany, where his sitters included the Electress Sophia Dorothea; the painting (untraced) is known from an engravingGLOSSARYA print made from a metal plate that has had a design cut into it with a sharp point. Ink is smeared over the plate and then wiped off, the ink remaining in the etched lines being transferred when the plate is pressed very firmly onto a sheet of paper. (London, British Museum) by William Faithorne, who also executed six mezzotints after him. In 1689 Kerseboom painted the prototype of the Hon. Robert Boyle (c. 1689; London, Royal Society), of which numerous versions exist; this portraitGLOSSARYThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90). is one demonstration of his idiosyncracies: the long, angular face, the extended figures and an emphasis on accessories.
Kerseboom worked closely with other artists, most notably with Jan van der Vaardt (c. 1653-1727), who often provided drapery and backgrounds as he had earlier done for Willem Wissing (c. 1656-1687). Portraits were sometimes jointly signed, and their individual styles are difficult to disentangle. The team perpetuated the Wissing tradition, although Kerseboom favoured warmer and more varied colours. An early work such as Lady Grace Carteret (Petworth House, W. Sussex,) is barely distinguishable from a late Wissing, and Kerseboom's portraits of women and young children, such as the Hon. James Thynne (c. 1692; Longleat House, Wilts), were often merely decorative. On the other hand, his later male portraits are often sympathetic and robust: the full-length Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds (1704; London, National Portrait GalleryGLOSSARYan upper story, similar to a tribune, running along the side of a building and open on one side to the interior; in a church (basilica) above the side aisles, over the ambulatory (central-plan building) and also over the west end. The gallery was used to keep certain groups of worshippers apart (women, noblemen).), signed by both artists, aptly conveys Kerseboom's sympathetic observation, while it is also a fine example of the grand 'parade' portrait.
