WIERINGA, Willems Harmen

Dutch painter. He was a portraitist who lived and worked in the northwestern part of the Dutch Republic, in Friesland. He was active in Leeuwarden, his stay is documented between 1639 and 1644, when he is recorded as an advisor to the local Frisian government, recommending designs for buildings and also for ceremonial carriages.

He was strongly influenced by the most important 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painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or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). painter of the region, Wybrand de Geest (1592-1661/65), who was active as court painter of three Frisian Stadtholders in their capitalGLOSSARYThe head or crowning feature of a column or pillar. Structurally, capitals broaden the area of a column so that it can more easily bear the weight of the arch or entablature it supports. Leeuwarden between 1621 and his death. He was married with Margaretha van Tongeren. The couple had four children. One of them, Nicolaas (1624/26-1681), was a pupil of his father; he painted portraits and also religious and mythological subjects. Both father and son Nicolaas were for many years appointed by the province of Friesland for non artistic paint jobs, they actually had to paint buildings. Their function was called 'landscape painter' ('landschapsschilder' or 'schilder van het landschap').

It should be mentioned that to differentiate him from his son, Nicolaas Wieringa, this painter is sometimes simply called 'Harmen Willems', the name he actually signed some of his paintings with. 'Willems' is thus his last name and not to be confused with the common second first name 'Willemsz.' that would stand for 'Willemszoon', 'son of Willems'. "Wieringa" refers to Harmen Willems' birthplace, a small village called Wier, 15 km NW from Leeuwarden.