Andries Pels
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Andries Pels (2 September 1655, Amsterdam - 8 February 1731) was a rich Dutch banker and insurer from Amsterdam. He was the banker of France in the era of John Law. He was nephew of his namesake, poet Andries Pels, and was uncle to the colonial governor Paulus van der Veen. In 1742 his widow, Angenita Pels-Bouwens (1660–1749), was the richest woman in Amsterdam, living at the Golden Bend.
Pels formed the partnership Andries Pels & Soonen, dealing in luxury goods, insurance, and currency, in 1707 that lasted until 1774.
Today, Pels is primarily known for his disparaging comments on the work of Rembrandt, calling him the first heretic in art. One of his poems attacked Rembrandt's realism and attacked his "flabby breasts, distorted hands ... and the marks of the garters about the legs."
The entire passage reads:
- "When he attempted to paint a naked woman ... he chose, not the Grecian Venus, but a washerwoman or farm-servant .... Such models he reproduced in every detail, flabby breasts, distorted hands, even the ridges formed by the bodice round the waist, and the marks of the garters about the legs." --Rembrandt, sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps
See also
- Gebruik én misbruik des tooneels [www.dbnl.org/tekst/pels001gebr01_01/]
