Portrait of Amalie Elisabeth Von Hanau-Munzenberg 1640

Here is a painting of Amalie Elisabeth Von Hanau-Munzenberg, made by Gerard van Honthorst, who worked in the 17th century. This is oil on canvas, a common enough pairing, but there's nothing inevitable about it. Paintings could be done on wood, copper, plaster, glass, or even directly on rock. Canvas had to be woven, prepared with gesso, primed, and stretched. Each step involves different skilled trades. It suggests a system of artistic production, and of course, the patronage needed to keep it all in motion. Then there's the painterly skill of rendering skin tones, textures of fabric and pearls, and the fall of light. The whole effect is carefully calibrated to evoke the lady's elite status. But in another sense, all this effort on canvas is an illusion: we’re looking at a person, not a thing. Yet to really see this painting, we must also consider the means by which it was made.