page_title: Nicola van Houbraken
section_title: The self-portrait that wasn’t
hierarchical_section_title: Nicola van Houbraken / Work / The self-portrait that wasn’t
context_page_description: Nicola or Nicolino or Niccolino van Houbraken, also known as Nicolino Vanderbrach da Messina and Nicola Messinese was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque who was of Flemish descent. He specialized in paintings depicting playful arrangements of fruits, vegetables, vegetation, animals, game in interiors or in forests. He also painted allegories and garland paintings. His work was appreciated by the Medici court in Florence.
context_section_description: Another example of a garland painting is one of his paintings in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which  shows a flower garland frame which in this case encircles a portrait of a man. This work was traditionally identified with the self-portrait that he was believed to have sent to the Grand Duke.  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.  The misidentification of the sitter happened already in the 18th century. 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.  The date of the work is not known with certainty.  The traditionally estimated date of 1720 has been questioned by certain art historians who place the date of the work at the end of the 17th century.  The painting may possibly be identified with a canvas presented at the art exhibition held in 1729 in the cloisters of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence which was described in the catalogue of that same year as a flower painting by Wan-ou-bru-ken with inside the portrait of Mr. Riviera.
  The portrait itself is created with a highly illusionistic trompe l'oeil effect. 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.  Van Houbraken goes one step further in creating the illusion that the portrayed person and the canvas are part of the same reality by letting the sitter peek out from an illusory gash in the canvas.
  The presumed sitter for the portrait François Rivière has a wry, melancholy smile on his face.  This may have to do with the fact that despite his obvious talents as an artist he was not able to achieve commercial success in Livorno and was living in poverty.  The smile of the sitter may also refer to the genre of works for which François Rivière was known, which were mainly small-scale comical (cunning) genre scenes.
  A pendant to this so-called Self-portrait is also held at the Uffizi. It is called Still life with a fountain and a garland of flowers and fruit.  It shows a garland of fruit, mushrooms and other vegetation suspended around a fountain.  The upper part of the fountain comprises a mask attached to a sculpted shell held by two volutes. It has been suggested that the pendant paintings depict the competition between sculpture and painting.  This was a common topic of discussion in the art community throughout 17th-century Europe. The two sides of the discussion put forward their arguments as to why either art form was superior to the other.  It is clear that van Houbraken takes the side of painting, represented by the Portrait of François Rivière. Its superiority is shown by its ability to create near-realistic imitations of life while sculpture, represented by the Still life with a fountain and a garland of flowers and fruit, can only recreate a lifeless image of reality.
  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.  Flowers are the perfect symbol for this motif as they typically only last for a season before they wither and die.
caption: Still life with fountain and garland of flowers and fruit
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