Mars Vigilant (Man in Armor Holding a Pike)
c. 1630
Jan van Bijlert (Dutch, 1597/98–1671)
Oil on canvas
Norton Simon Art Foundation
Jan van Bijlert was a prime exponent of the Utrecht school of painting in the seventeenth century. He had a predilection for simple, life-size half-figures and regularly painted both formal and allegorical portraits. However, the soldier’s theatrical pose, vigilant gaze and elaborate suit of armor argue against this being a portrait and in favor of its being a representation of a type of mythological personage, perhaps the god Mars. The elaborate sash and orange and blue feathers symbolize the forces of the United Netherlands and their fight against Spain during the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648).
Meet Your Art Twin
When Ross W. Duffin and his wife visited the Norton Simon Museum in 2018, they had no idea that they would discover his doppelgänger in the painting Mars Vigilant (Man in Armor Holding a Pike). Duffin posed in front of the artwork, then posted the image to social media, where it went viral—he even ended up in a New York Times article about “art twins.” The popularity of apps that can match a face to an artwork suggests that many people hope to find themselves in a work of art rendered sometime centuries in the past. As the Museum’s Vice President of External Affairs, Leslie Denk, offers in the article, “Art has the power to transport us through time, and so I think it’s a joy to recognize ourselves, a friend or even a pet, in an artwork from centuries ago.”
