Protestant Family Portraits: Art and Evidence

This talk will examine a number of group portraits of Protestant families for the information they offer as to the values, attitudes, rituals and way of life afforded by their religious beliefs. Certain portraits can be considered intentional statements of confessional allegiance, in which such values are explicitly proclaimed; in others, Protestant values have been apparently sufficiently absorbed as to suggest themselves naturally and unobtrusively within the family group, comfortably worn and unselfconsciously lived by the individual family members. In keeping with the conference theme, the analysis will consider the nature of such images as historical documents and draw attention to the art historical methods developed in distinguishing the record of fact from artistic convention.