Nicola van Houbraken
Nicola's father, Ettore (or Hector, died 1723), and his grandfather, Joannes (Giovanni) van Houbraken (Houbracken) (originally from Antwerp), were both history painters and art dealers.
[3][4] His forest still lifes continue the tradition of the works of Otto Marseus van Schrieck, who was one of the first practitioners of this genre.
[5] Characteristic of the artist's style are the rapid touches of light imprinted on tiny leaves and the bold brushstrokes which depict the flowers in a neat manner so that they are set off from the dark background.
Nicola displayed a precision and technical mastery in portraying different botanical species with extreme realism and naturalness.
His compositions are rich in charm and a chromatic range with a preference for icy and crystalline tones, recalling the work of Abraham Brueghel.
His still lifes also reflect the influence of contemporary Tuscan production of the Florentine and Lucca school of Bartolomeo Bimbi and Andrea Scacciati.
In this work Alessandro Magnasco painted the figures, Marco Ricci the landscape, the unknown Bianchi di Livorno the stones and Nicola van Houbraken the herbs.
Paintings in this genre initially showed a flower or, less frequently, fruit garland around a devotional image or portrait.
[13][14] Daniel Seghers developed the illusionistic aspects of the genre by replacing the cartouche portraits with paintings of bas reliefs and sculptures.
By using trompe-l'œil effects, Seghers was able to create the illusion of three-dimensionality, for instance by including elements that look as if they protrude outside of the picture frame.
The aim was to give the viewer the impression that they were not looking at a painting but at a real garland of flowers around a genuine sculptured cartouche.
Art historians have now shown that the painting is in fact not a self-portrait but a portrait of the French painter François Rivière who worked in Livorno.
It probably has its roots in the fact that the head of the sitter emerges from the shadow tilted towards the viewer as if it were the artist's reflection in a mirror.
It appears as if the head of the sitter is peeking out through a big gash in the canvas the lower side of which he holds down with his right hand.
The effect thus created resembles that in some of the illusionistic portraits of the Dutch painters Gerard Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten which show people extending their head or hand through a painted window.
[9] Another motif at play in this painting is that of vanitas, i.e. the reflection on the fleetingness and ultimate meaninglessness of all worldly pursuits as they will all end in death and destruction.
