Frans Pourbus the Elder

This miniature by Frans Pourbus the Elder records his friend Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600), a fellow artist whose likeness here compares closely to other contemporary portrait engravings of him, including Jan Sadeler’s engraving of 1592.¹ Pourbus the Elder also captured Hoefnagel in his large and important canvas of circa 1580 depicting the Hoefnagel Family today in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.²

The Antwerp-born Joris Hoefnagel trained as an artist under Hans Bol. After Antwerp was sacked by the Spaniards, he travelled south with his friend Abraham Ortelius, the famed cartographer. During his travels along the Rhine and in Italy, he captured the attention of many who were impressed with his skills as a miniaturist. Cardinal Farnese invited him to Rome to replace Giulio Clovio, but Hoefnagel instead chose to work for the Duke of Bavaria in Munich, where he remained until 1591. He subsequently worked in Frankfurt am Main and then Vienna, but made regular trips to Prague, where he painted for Emperor Rudolf II.

Notably, this miniature has very close affinities to a work found in a painting by Frans Francken the Younger in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.³ In the lower left corner amidst all of the objects of a crowded Kunstkammer, sits a comparable miniature just in front of a profile portrait of Hoefnagel’s friend, Abraham Ortelius. 

We are grateful to Koenraad Jonckheere who, on the basis of digital photographs, sees the hand of Frans Pourbus the Elder in this work, especially in the flesh tones of the sitter.

¹ Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. RP-P-1940-967. 

² Inv. no. 4435, oil on canvas, 157 x 215 cm.

³ Inv. no. 1048, oil on panel, 74 x 78 cm.