Double Portrait of an Elderly Couple
Georg Flegel·1600
Historical Context
Flegel's Double Portrait of an Elderly Couple from around 1600 is an unusual work in his output, which was almost entirely devoted to still life. The commission suggests that early in his career Flegel was still working in the broader tradition of portraiture before specializing. The double portrait of an aged couple has a long tradition in German painting from Dürer and Holbein onward, and Flegel situates his sitters within the sober, observational portrait manner of the German bourgeois tradition.
Technical Analysis
The elderly couple is shown in paired bust-length portraits with the direct, unsparing observation characteristic of German portrait traditions. Flegel's attention to surface detail — skin texture, fabric, accessories — already hints at the still-life sensibility that would define his mature career.
