Striving for Close Resemblance or Creative Improvements: On Painted Copies and Workshop Replicas from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century in Swedish Art History

Abstract

Summary This study examines painted copies from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to gain a richer understanding of the phenomenon of copies and of copying as a common artistic practice. The study findings suggest that copies painted in Sweden in the seventeenth century were, in general, free copies. In that century, the Swedish economy was booming, and a semi-regulated art market had developed, and many of the paintings commissioned by the monarchy and nobility were copies of portraits. This phenomenon is analysed here in light of the new iconology and its focus on image circulation and transformation in and between different media, as well as regarding the increasing interest in the last decades in pre-modern copies within art history and visual studies. Special attention is given to the portraits of Margareta Eriksdotter (Vasa) from 1528, the free copies of her portrait made in the seventeenth century and the copy of The Sun Dog Painting from 1636. Three known portrait multiples are known of Margareta Eriksdotter, and they are thought likely to represent part of the same commission and to have been painted in Lübeck in 1528 by Hans Kemmer, a student of Lucas Cranach the Elder. The phenomenon of free copies painted in the seventeenth century is interpreted as combining artistic alterations and improvements, while the visual content that was considered significant for preservation from the previous image had to be copied faithfully.