Hortensia del Prado
Portrait by Salomon Mesdach, c. 1625
Died18 June 1627
Occupation(s)Nobelwoman, horticulturalist
EraDutch Golden Age

Hortensia del Prado (d. 1627) was a Dutch noblewoman and horticulturalist whose garden in Middelburg was featured by the poet Jacob Cats.

Biography

Whilst little is known about del Prado's early life, the names of her two husbands and her talent in horticulture are recorded. Her first husband was Jean Fourmenois. After his death she then married Pieter Courten. The names of her husbands are recorded through the paintings that were commissioned of them.[1] From her first marriage, she had one daughter Catharina Fourmenois.[2] Del Prado and Courten had no children.[3]

Courten and del Prado lived on the Lange Noordstraat in Middelburg and a neighbour was the poet Jacob Cats.[1] Del Prado was one of several enthusiastic horticulturalists in Middelburg in the seventeenth century and plant-swapping was part of social life for the wealthy there.[4] Del Prado had built the garden in 1613 and it was large enough for a 'hundred' fountains, which also held fish and were supposedly powered by the Rhine, as well as a wooded area and a meadow – all within the middle of the town.[5] Cats featured the couple's garden in his 1624 poem Houwelick, praising its fruit "from distant beaches" and the rare flowers "without any name".[1][6]

Del Prado died on 18 June 1627.[7]

Legacy

The Rijksmuseum has three portraits of del Prado in its collection: two by Gortzius Geldorp dating to 1596 and 1599;[8][9] one by Salomon Mesdach created c. 1625.[7] Del Prado's portraits are a rich source for fashion historians, noted in particular for the black lace she wears in the Mesdach portrait.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 DBNL. "P.J. Meertens, Letterkundig leven in Zeeland in de zestiende en de eerste helft der zeventiende eeuw · dbnl". DBNL (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  2. ↑ Grell, Ole Peter (2017-07-05). Calvinist Exiles in Tudor and Stuart England. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-95356-6.
  3. ↑ Wuestman (2005). "Het familjie boeckje van Pieter Boudaen Courten". Bulletin van Het Rijksmuseum. 53: 51.
  4. ↑ Helden, Albert Van; Dupré, Sven; Gent, Rob van (2010). The Origins of the Telescope. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-6984-615-6.
  5. ↑ Goldgar, Anne (2008-09-15). Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-30130-3.
  6. ↑ BOL, L. J.; VAN DEN BERGHE, CHRISTOFFEL; MOLANUS, MATTHEUS ADOLFSZOON (1956). "Een Middelburgse Breughel-groep: V. BLOEMEN EN LANDSCHAP". Oud Holland. 71 (4): 183–203. doi:10.1163/187501756X00217. ISSN 0030-672X. JSTOR 42712130.
  7. 1 2 "Portret van Hortensia del Prado (?-1627), Salomon Mesdach (toegeschreven aan), ca. 1625". Rijksmuseum (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  8. ↑ "Hortensia del Prado (gest 1627). Echtgenote van Jean Fourmenois, Gortzius Geldorp, 1596". Rijksmuseum (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  9. ↑ "Hortensia del Prado (gest 1627), Gortzius Geldorp, 1599". Rijksmuseum (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  10. ↑ Wardle, Patricia (1985). "Seventeenth-Century Black Silk Lace in the Rijksmuseum". Bulletin van Het Rijksmuseum. 33 (4): 207–225. ISSN 0165-9510. JSTOR 40382294.
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