Portraits of Hans Thenn’s Children
The charming portraits of three siblings are among the earliest portrayals of children from a middle-class background. Their clothes and the similar landscape show they are from the same family. The likenesses had been commissioned by their father Hans Thenn, Master of the Mint in the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg. His youngest offspring are wearing coral necklaces to protect them from disease and harm. The boy on the left has tethered the bird in his hand to a string, while his older brother wears a humanist hat to show he enjoyed a school education. In this way, the siblings social roles are assigned through their attributes: the sons as scholars and avid hunters, the daughter as kind and caring.
1516
47.0 x 105.8 x 3.5 cm
Image © Belvedere, Vienna, 2021