Dubois Riegl Analysis

Alois Riegl was born in Austria in 1858, and dies in 1905. He studied law, history, and then philosophy, and began his career as an art historian as a curator of a textile for the Museum of Art and Industry. His most influential publications include Problems of Style(1893), Late Roman Art Industry(1901), and The Group Portraiture of Holland(1931).
Alois Riegl and Heinrich Wolfflin both deal with art history as formalists. They studied the stylistic characteristics of time periods and cultures to determine categories of art which was used to define specific expressions of an epoch. Riegl moved away from Hegel’s art is history mindset and determined that historians had to look beyond the individual and find similar qualities of artists to determine

In the painting, the group of men seated around a table all seem to be sharing the activity of a dinner gather. The Dutch influence is shown through the passive nature of the figures. While they are all centered around a single gathering, each figure seems to have a soulful, inward gaze. The attentiveness shown by Barendsz in his figures is important to how we are viewing the painting. The Italians were concerned with representing the human body so that it was responding to a single act of will, but here, the figures seem frozen in a state of self reflection. The figures are aware that they are interacting with one another, but emphasis is placed on there being no outward connection of the figures. Italian influence can be seen with special attention placed on the glances. Although, it appears more Dutch because the eyes are looking out towards the world, but still hold a sense of inquiry. There is a small emphasis placed on the hands, that appear to be frozen in movement, are given a good amount of detail, which is seen as an Italian