EDWAERT COLLIER | TROMPE-L’ŒIL WITH A PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS

This trompe l’œil depiction of Erasmus of Rotterdam, the great Dutch humanist and renaissance scholar, reproduces a print made after the famous portrait of Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger. Collier included such a print in many of his works. He was clearly fascinated by the idea of mechanical reproduction, which called into question the very role of the artist – an issue raised in his own works, designed to trick the viewer. Erasmus himself wrote on the subject of deceitful appearances, and Collier’s preoccupation with his image was undoubtedly a deliberate reference.