Portrait of a Man 1675 - 1685

Pieter van Slingelandt painted this small portrait on a copper plate sometime in the late 17th century. The choice of copper as a support is significant. Unlike canvas, which is absorbent, copper offers a smooth, non-porous surface, allowing for the kind of meticulous detail we see here. It is the perfect ground for the artist's technique of "fine painting". Slingelandt seems to have aimed at illusionism above all else; and copper assists him in this. The painting’s appeal lies in the artist’s skillful depiction of textures: the soft hair, the fine linen, and the ruddy complexion of the sitter. Copper, while costly, enabled effects that spoke of wealth and status in this period of Dutch prosperity. Ultimately, this portrait reminds us that materials and the labor involved in their manipulation are key to understanding the full meaning of any artwork.