Familie Korsgen Elbertsen

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen painted this portrait of the Korsgen Elbertsen family around 1509 in Amsterdam. Family group portraits were important documents of bourgeois Dutch identity and piety. Cornelisz's contribution to this genre helped establish conventions that would be developed by later Dutch painters. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

Oil on panel with Cornelisz's characteristic portrait style combining individualized features with formal group composition. The family members are arranged with attention to hierarchy and domestic decorum.