1635 · Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

The genre of portrait was also practiced in Flanders, yet there are distinct differences between the North and the South in the Netherlands. Middle-class and Calvinist tendencies are particularly evident in the Dutch preference for mock-realism and intimacy, and it is these characteristics which predominate in Anthonie Palamedes' Family Portrait. The family, with numerous children, sits primly in a room with the air of a peep-show; Palamedes is not particularly interested in the actual portrait aspect of the work.