1600s Mother & Child in a Walled Garden

1600s Marcus Gheeraerts the younger (Flemish artist, 1561-1635). Lady Anne Cotton (nee Hoghton) with her son John posed in a garden  Most mother with children portraits in the 16-17C are posed indoors.  The Renaissance, from the 14-17C, marked a turning point in portraiture. Artists began to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the dominant religious art of medieval painters. Partly out of interest in the natural world & partly out of nostalgia for classical Greece & Rome, portraits became valued as allegorical objects & as depictions of earthly success & status. The period in Europe was the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages & modern history. The relationship between man & nature was evolving as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) promoted man as "the minister & interpreter of nature." Portraits began to depict the wealthy & the middle class in natural landscapes & in more formal garden settings, where man was obviously controlling the nature around him.