Images of Children in the Dutch Golden Age Family Portrait

The article deals with the images of children in the Dutch family portrait of the XVII century. The influence of Protestantism was reflected in the fact that in the Netherlands the family was considered to be the most important social institution, the basis of the state and the Church. Relationships within the family were to set an example of love, trust and mutual support. The task of the parents was to raise responsible citizens of the Republic and faithful Christians. The upbringing of the children was the responsibility of both parents: young children up to the age of seven were mostly with their mother; older children, especially boys, were under the greater educational supervision of their father. In family portraits, artists emphasized the hierarchical structure of the family, the distribution of duties between husband and wife, and also paid much attention to children, whose images were supposed to testify to their good upbringing. With the help of individual motifs with symbolic meaning, Dutch artists revealed the peculiarities of family relationships and pedagogical ideas underlying the system of child education based on Christian and humanistic texts. Child mortality was high in the seventeenth-century Netherlands: only half of all children born lived to the age of twenty-five. The large number of family portraits, especially of young children, shows that parents rejoiced at the addition to the family, loved their children, and tried to keep their memory alive if the children passed away early. This is evidenced both by the large number of portraits of children under one year of age and the emergence of the genre of family portraits depicting deceased children. The article deals with the images of children in the Dutch family portrait of the XVII century. The influence of Protestantism was reflected in the fact that in the Netherlands the family was considered to be the most important social institution, the basis of the state and the Church. Relationships within the family were to set an example of love, trust and mutual support. The task of the parents was to raise responsible citizens of the Republic and faithful Christians. The upbringing of the children was the responsibility of both parents: young children up to the age of seven were mostly with their mother; older children, especially boys, were under the greater educational supervision of their father. In family portraits, artists emphasized the hierarchical structure of the family, the distribution of duties between husband and wife, and also paid much attention to children, whose images were supposed to testify to their good upbringing. With the help of individual motifs with symbolic meaning, Dutch artists revealed the peculiarities of family relationships and pedagogical ideas underlying the system of child education based on Christian and humanistic texts. Child mortality was high in the seventeenth-century Netherlands: only half of all children born lived to the age of twenty-five. The large number of family portraits, especially of young children, shows that parents rejoiced at the addition to the family, loved their children, and tried to keep their memory alive if the children passed away early. This is evidenced both by the large number of portraits of children under one year of age and the emergence of the genre of family portraits depicting deceased children.