This article interrogates the genre and symbolical substance of Rembrandt’s Polish Rider (New York, The Frick Collection). Reinterpretation of the painting is based on iconographical, theological and historical analysis and develops an... more
This article interrogates the genre and symbolical substance of Rembrandt’s Polish Rider
(New York, The Frick Collection). Reinterpretation of the painting is based on iconographical, theological and historical analysis and develops an argument that the image
of the soldier is a posthumous equestrian portrait of Bohdan (Theodatus) Oginski
(c. 1619–1649) commissioned by his half-brother, Marcyan Aleksander. The article re-examines the previous interpretations of the painting as a portrait, an allegorical image of
a Christian Soldier and a composition charged with biblical references, while investigating unexplored vantage points: the Oginskis’ social standing, their commemoration strategy and Ruthenian-Orthodox identity.
The aim of this study is to investigate the role of posthumous portraits in the Tornabuoni family as a tool of positioning itself through visual rhetorics. The basis for the examination is three portraits of Francesca Pitti, Giovanna... more
The aim of this study is to investigate the role of posthumous portraits in the Tornabuoni family as a tool of positioning itself through visual rhetorics. The basis for the examination is three portraits of Francesca Pitti, Giovanna degli Albizzi and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, together with an altarpiece depicting the Visitation with Mary Jachobi and Mary Salome. The study uses iconography to analyse the images and using a rhetorical analysis to understand the visual rhetorics used by the family. The study finds that there are different hidden meanings in the portraits, Francesca is remembered by her husband by pure grief; Lucrezia is honoured as the bridge between the Tornabuoni and the Medici families, and Giovanna is remembered by her husband as the continuation of the dynasty in its time of crisis, as well as the pure loss and grief of his beloved wife and unborn child inside the walls of the palazzo. This study uses the theoretical framework of visual rhetorics, as developed by the historian Paul Zanker and adopted by art historian Johan Eriksson, to analyse the behaviour of commissioning posthumous portraits of deceased women and viewing them both in public and private spaces in churches and in the palazzo. As Alberti says: ''Through painting, the faces of the dead go on living for a very long time.''
