- Title
- Petrus Forestus [Pieter van Foreest]
- Date Made
- circa 1586
- Medium
- Engraving
- Dimensions
- Mat: 17 1/8 × 14 1/4 in. (43.5 × 36.2 cm)
Sheet: 5 1/4 × 3 5/16 in. (13.34 × 8.41 cm)
Image: 5 1/8 × 3 1/16 in. (13.02 × 7.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2023.245.2
- Collecting Area
- Prints and Drawings
- Curatorial Notes
This bust-length engraved portrait depicts Pieter van Foreest (1521−1597), a prominent Dutch physician. Clad in a fur-trimmed robe, with a glove in his left hand—the rumpled empty fingertips of which extend beyond the image in a trompe-l’oeil fashion—van Foreest’s gaze meets the viewer directly, his lips parted as if captured mid-greeting. The sumptuous fur collar and details of his robe, the sheen of his hat, and his full beard add rich textures to the portrait, while the faint details of an obelisk and garden path beyond his left arm suggest something of the worldliness of this educated doctor and friend of William I of Orange. Dated 1586, the work was used two years later as a frontispiece for van Foreest’s book on common diseases, Observationum et curationum medicinalium de febribus publice grassantibus.
This engraving is a deceptive copy after Goltzius’s designs. It is a mirror-image of a metalpoint preliminary study for the engraved portrait drawing done by the master in the same year, and was probably engraved by an artist in Goltzius’s sizeable workshop.
Claire Spadafora Baes
2024