Netherlands, (1532!)
With the growing self-awareness of the burghers, the middle class, and their new sense of unity and common purposes in life, group portraits began to make their appearance in Netherlandish painting. This is one of the earliest examples of such a work. Jacobsz showed the members of the Amsterdam Shooting Corporation wearing the reddish-blue cloak and flat black hat that was their uniform. The figures are placed overlapping one another, forming a three-tier composition. In the centre, the head of the guild can be identified by his metal armour and a musket in his hands. On the cloak of one of the men in the foreground is an eagle's talon, the Corporation's emblem. Before us are men of different ages, of varied appearance and temperament, each of them an individual with his own character. At the same time the members of the shooting corporation - whose main functions were the maintenance of public order and the protection of the city from enemies from outside - are united by their common understanding of the social significance of their group as a whole and by pride in being a member of that group. Even though the subject of the portrait may not be so very mesmerizing, the skill and talent Jacobsz possessed as early as 1532, that we must be in awe of.
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