Twee staande heren in zware mantels 1673 - 1721

Curator: This intriguing sketch, dating from between 1673 and 1721, is by Jan Vincentsz. van der Vinne. It’s entitled "Twee staande heren in zware mantels"—"Two Standing Gentlemen in Heavy Coats"—and rendered in pen, coloured pencil and watercolor. Editor: My immediate impression is one of weightiness. Those cloaks appear incredibly heavy and the linework certainly conveys that. But, I’m also drawn to the suggestion of wealth and status inherent in the scene. Curator: Indeed, the work prompts questions about how identity and status were performed through attire during this era. The weight of their coats mirrors the weight of their social positions, especially when considering Dutch sumptuary laws of the time that attempted to regulate and thus emphasize clothing's relationship with class. Editor: Exactly. And it's important to consider the materiality here, too. These aren't quick studies, but deliberate drawings employing specific types of pen and even color that suggests value. Who had access to such materials, and what did that access signify? The drawing itself becomes a display of certain privileges and artisanal labor. Curator: Right, the layering of medium speaks to careful consideration about material culture, but if we consider the performative act of displaying social capital in Holland, during that specific timeframe, do these two gentlemen participate to some form of patriarchal and bourgeois enforcement? The genre, style, clothing, everything seems to converge. Editor: Possibly. But look closely at the slight sketchiness of their figures. Are we also seeing an emerging tension between traditional portraiture, material status, and the rapidly developing merchant class of the Netherlands, the rise of capitalist social hierarchy and perhaps these two characters have nothing, after all, but clothing as means of projecting status? Curator: That's fascinating – how the sketch captures the shifting ground of social identities! Looking at Van der Vinne’s figures now, they also represent an intimate lens into Baroque aesthetic ideals about manhood that are inextricably linked to gendered class structure. Editor: This brief examination just demonstrates that the social reality around the drawing—the making, materials, display—intersect and offer so much insight beyond just aesthetic preferences and taste making. Curator: Agreed. It underscores how deeply material and social history can intersect through a simple genre painting such as this one, giving contemporary theory space to breathe.