Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters

Tronies: Marlene Dumas and the Old Masters, currently on show at Haus der Kunst, Munich (until 6 February), draws on the the word 'tronie' which comes from the Netherlandish word for 'head', 'face' or 'countenance', and brings together figure studies for works by 16th and 17th century Master painters such as Rubens, Rembrandt and Frans Hals with the work of the South African-born, Holland-based contemporary artist Marlene Dumas.

Originally painted from life, tronies -  only recently been classified as a genre in their own right - were used as reference models for figures in historical paintings. However their expressive nature meant they were also particularly coveted by collectors as examples of an artist's signature and over the course of the 17th century were increasingly created as independent artworks, available for sale on the art market.

Drawn and painted representations of heads and figures form a constant in the work of Dumas, who moved to Holland in 1976. In contrast to the Old Masters, who worked from living models, Dumas draws her inspiration from photographic reproductions from books, fashion and popular magazines as well as newspapers. Her work includes well-known figures such as Naomi Campbell (Naomi, 1995) and Barbie (The Original, 1997) and connection to the original figure is further removed through ambiguous titles and often larger-than-life colour and scale. "People believe they can get information from looking at a picture, and in a sense the appearance [of the portrait] takes on its own life. I find that very interesting," explains Dumas, who does not regard her representations as portraits; "I use second-hand images and first-hand emotions".

Yet Dumas' paintings bear many resemblances to the tronie movement: the expressive nature, the lack of context for the head or body on the canvas and, most prominently, the refusal of the works to be interpreted as portraits in any traditional definition of the word. Furthermore the artist has drawn specific inspiration from historical works from various eras - see, for example Delacroix Woman, 1984 - in particular from works by the northern Netherlands' Haarlem school of painters. 

By comparing and contrasting works from the tronie movement with highlights from the whole of Dumas' career this dialogical exhibition transcends eras and disciplines, exploring both the changing and continuous nature of the depiction of the human form. 

To accompany the exhibition the Haus der Kunst will be holding an international symposium on 4 February inviting art historians, historians and literary scholars to explore the historical discourse concerning the human face and its perception. The hope is that this will give rise to new developments in the understanding of the long-term development of the pictorial form, its reception and the approaches of individual artists.