The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Portrait of Machtelt Suijs

Portrait of Machtelt Suijs

c. 1540–45
(Dutch, 1498–1574)
Framed: 107 x 97 x 8 cm (42 1/8 x 38 3/16 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 85 x 74 cm (33 7/16 x 29 1/8 in.)

Did You Know?

The coat of arms depicts golden pile drivers, indicating the family construction business.

Description

Maerten van Heemskerck lived in Rome for four years (1532–36) and was deeply affected by the city's art and antiquities. Here, the half-length, seated figure, the tense yet elegant hands, and even the grotesque classical mask reflect the impact of that experience, while the love of meticulously represented textures is traditionally associated with northern European art. Machtelt Suijs married Dirick van Teijlingen in 1535 and lived in Alkmaar (the Netherlands), where Heemskerck must have painted her. The coat-of-arms that hangs from the mask combines family emblems, indicating that her portrait must have been accompanied by one (now lost) of her husband.
  • The panel is in remarkably good condition for a painting from the mid-1500s. Old losses, which run vertically along the plank joins, indicate a history of previous instability. This is likely what led to the addition of the cradle (fixed vertical and sliding horizontal battens on the reverse), a common treatment in the past, but now replaced with more sensitive stabilization methods that are less constraining. A 3–7 mm (about 0.28 in.) band of exposed wood with a raised gesso ridge is present along the top and bottom edges. This would seem to indicate that an “engaged” frame was once part of the original structure. Infrared reflectography reveals changes to the chair posts executed in lead-tin yellow, but does not indicate any underdrawing in a carbon-based media over the white chalk (calcium carbonate) ground layer. Interestingly, Heemskerck added a calcium-rich glass to some of his paint, notably in the red sleeves where glazes of a transparent red lake colorant were applied over top of vermilion and lead white paint layers. While the paint layer is in excellent condition, retouchings (inpainting) from a prior treatment had lifted away from older waxy fill material and become matte. These conditions led to the decision to conserve the painting in 2019. The old problematic fills were removed and replaced, followed by inpainting with powdered pigments ground in an aldehyde resin-based varnish.
  • 1987-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
    1987
    (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, and Bruno Meissner, Zurich, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1987
    (Nouveau Drouot, Paris, sale, March 17, 1987, no. 147, sold to Thomas Agnew and Bruno Meissner)
    Possibly until 1987
    Private collection, Tournai (?), Belgium
    c. 1540/1545-after 1581
    Dirick [1512-1578] and Machtelt van Teijlingen [d. after 1581], Alkmaar, Holland
  • Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, letter to Evan Turner, July 1, 1987, in CMA curatorial
    Evan Turner, letter to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, April 7, 1987, in CMA curatorial file
    Hôtel Drouot. Objets d'art et de très bel ameublement principalement du XVIIIe siècle; dessins et tableaux anciens. March 17, 1987.
    “The Year in Review,” The Cleveland Museum of Art News & Calendar, 1988.
    Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, letter to Evan Turner, July 1, 1987, in CMA curatorial file.
    Evan Turner, letter to Ann Lurie, April 7, 1987, in CMA curatorial file.
    Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “Heemskerck’s Portrait of Machtelt Suijs at The Cleveland Museum of Art,” The Burlington Magazine 134, no. 1076 (Nov., 1992): 698-706.
    Dudok van Heel, S. A. C. "Andries Willemsz. van Oudshoorn en Alkmaarse opdrachten aan Maarten van Heemskerck." In Face book: studies on Dutch and Flemish portraiture of the 16th-18th centuries. Leiden: Primavera Pers, 2012. pp. 45-54. Reproduced: P. 51, fig. 8
    Perkinson, Stephen, and Naomi Speakman. The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe. Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Museum of Ar,t 2017. Reproduced: p. 18, fig. 3; Mentioned: p. 265
  • Forget Me Not. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (organizer) (September 30, 2021-January 16, 2022).
    Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
    CMA, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," Bull. 75 (Feb. 1988), p. 65, no. 21, color repr. p. 40.
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Machtelt Suijs|url=false|author=Maerten van Heemskerck|year=c. 1540–45|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.136