{"id":3586,"date":"2020-04-09T11:56:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T09:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merianin.de\/?page_id=3586"},"modified":"2021-02-09T15:04:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:04:02","slug":"fiktive-portraits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/merianin.de\/en\/home\/fiktive-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"FICTIONAL PORTRAITS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \n Changed Identity <\/span>\n \t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\tDIFFERENT FACES AS PORTRAITS OF MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Until a few years ago, even after 2010, most essays about Maria Sibylla Merian on the internet were illustrated with a colourful painting by \"de B\u00e2le\". (1)<\/p>\n

Thus far, it has not proved possible to identify this painter. His portrait is also listed on Wikisource, but with the added information that it portrays a completely different woman and the \"collection is unknown\". This picture is now hardly ever shown in connection with Merian.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Phantom of a painting on the Internet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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It is easier to find the copper etching (2), which probably served as a model for the untraceable painter \"de B\u00e2le\". The woman in question is Esther Barbara Sandrartin, n\u00e9e Bloemartin (1651-1733), wife of Joachim von Sandrart, the famous \"Painter Prince\" and author of the first encyclopaedia of artists for the German-speaking area.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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On the lower, etched frame we find information on the draughtsman and painter of the model: \u201cGeorg de Marees 1725\u201d (left), as well as the signature of the etcher: \u201cG. D. Heumann 1727\u201d (right).<\/p>\n

In the Latin inscription below the portrait it can clearly be read that the husband of the lady in the image was the famous (Joachim von) Sandrart (1606-1688):<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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In fact her date of birth was etched on the copper plate: \"Nata. d. 7. Jun. 1653\". Confusion of the subject with Maria Sibylla Merian was, therefore, not really possible, but the print could enjoy better sales and at a higher price if it was presented as a depiction of M. S. Merian after the lower part with the inscription had been cut off.<\/p>\n

Even with the correct identity, the etching remains valuable for research on Merian\u2019s Nuremberg background: in those days, queens and princesses were indeed portrayed, but such a high-quality etching for a woman like Frau Sandrart was an unusual honour at that time and shows that other women, too, were actually respected personalities in Nuremberg around 1700.<\/p>\n

Frau Sandrart was a very educated woman with a large collection of natural objects, a real \u201cCabinet of Curiosities\u201d. Her even more famous husband had appointed her his universal heir. On the etching she is portrayed as an expert butterfly collector. She was only four years younger than Maria Sibylla Merian and probably one of her good customers.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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A FRENCH PAINTER AS THE ALTER EGO OF M. S. MERIAN<\/h3>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n
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Another, very astonishing \"transfer of identity\" happened with a painting by Jean Baptiste Santerre, which was painted during Merian's lifetime. The young, attractive woman sits model for the painter in a way that does not fit M. S. Merian at all. Even the painter's palette would be out of place with Merian, because she did not paint in oil but in watercolours.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Artist: Jean Baptiste Santerre (1651-1717) Portrait of his \"Muse\", pupil and general heiress, Genevi\u00e8ve Blanchot, alias Godon<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Very popular etching by Johannes Caspar Eissenhardt (1824-1896) after the painting by Santerre, expressly identified as MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Merian biography, published in 1999<\/p>\n

ISBN 3492225810<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Merian biography, published in 2002<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9783100415073<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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CONFUSION WITH HER OLDER HALF-BROTHER JOACHIM<\/h3>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n
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Matth\u00e4us Merian the Elder in his family circle; \nbelow right the youngest son Joachim <\/em>(3)
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Painter: Matth\u00e4us Merian the Younger (young man \non the left side)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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The wish of many admirers to imagine this extraordinary artist and naturalist as accurately as possible was \u201cfulfilled\u201d by a fictitious child portrait of Maria Sibylla, in the picture with Matth\u00e4us Merian the Elder (1583-1659) and his first wife Maria Magdalena (1598-1645) in the midst of their children. (1) The youngest son, Joachim (1635-1701), was presented as Maria Sibylla.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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However, when the picture was painted, she was not yet born. In the lower right corner, it is not her we see, but her half-brother Joachim, older by twelve years, who hauls the enormous, imposing, antique plaster head into the picture. When he was ten years old, his mother died and his widowed father married his second wife Johanna Sibylla (1620-1690). One year later Maria Sibylla was born.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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  1. https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Esther_Barbara_von_Sandrart.jpg<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Radierung, Platte 35,7 x 25,2 cm, mit freundlicher Genehmigung: Germanisches Nationalmuseum N\u00fcrnberg, Inv. Nr. 15244<\/li>\n
  3. Cf. information in the online-catalogue of the fine Arts Museum Basel: Matth\u00e4us Merian the Younger, portrait of the Merian family, oil on canvas, 118.7 x 140 cm; \u00a9 Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. no. 2318, photo Martin P. B\u00fchler, donated by Prof. Dr. Ernst St\u00e4helin-Kutter (1953), photographer: Martin P. B\u00fchler, Inv.-No. 2318<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Identit\u00e4t vertauscht Fremde Gesichter als Vorlagen f\u00fcr Merianin-Portraits Bis vor wenigen Jahren, also sogar nach 2010, wurden die meisten Artikel im Internet \u00fcber die Merianin mit einem farbenfrohen Bild von \u201ede B\u00e2le\u201c illustriert. (1) Dieser Maler konnte bisher nicht identifiziert werden. Sein Gem\u00e4lde wird zwar auch bei Wikisource gelistet, aber mit dem Zusatz, [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3586","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nFiktive Portraits - merianin.de<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/merianin.de\/en\/home\/fiktive-portraits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fiktive Portraits - merianin.de\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/merianin.de\/en\/home\/fiktive-portraits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"merianin.de\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-09T14:04:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/merianin.de\/home\/fiktive-portraits\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/merianin.de\/home\/fiktive-portraits\/\",\"name\":\"Fiktive Portraits - 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