The marvel of his time: the centenarian Zierick Florisz.

The portrait below, painted in 1551 by an anonymous painter, depicts an old man called Zierick Florisz. No effort was made to hide Zierick’s high age: we face a man well beyond his prime. He is portrayed in simple clothes, sitting in a chair, holding a stick and a jug. The text on the top left reveals his high age was the reason for portraying this otherwise fairly unremarkable man. It reads:

ZIERICK FLORISZ OUDT BOVEN DE HONDERT IAER WAS TEGMONT VOERDE REFORMATIE EN CLAES CORVEN WAGENAER

‘Zierick Florisz, over 100 years of age, was at Egmond before the revolt and the coach driver of Claes Corf’

Clearly the painting was commissioned to document Zierick’s extraordinary old age, which is clarified by some biographical information: the sitter had been at the abbey of Egmond, where he had previously worked as the coach driver of Claes Corf. This Claes, the abbey’s steward, and also a tax collector, was famous for provoking the Rebellion of the Cheese and Bread people, a peasant revolt as far back as 1491. The painter emphasizes Zierick’s age by reminding viewers of this well-known piece of regional history.

Who commissioned the portrait? Zierick, having worked as a coach driver, would not have had sufficient money. It seems much more likely that the portrait was ordered by a wealthy inhabitant, perhaps of the city of Alkmaar where the painting was probably produced. Such a client might have been mimicking the fascination among the high and mighty for the extraordinary, as is still visible in various Renaissance Wunderkammern. The painting of the centenarian Zierick would have fit perfectly well in a cabinet of curiosities. Similar works are also known from the Prinsenhof palace in nearby Edam, where large paintings of a very tall woman, an obese man weighing over 250 kg, and a man with an enormous beard were displayed around 1600.

Obviously, to reach 100 years in the sixteenth century was more extraordinary than it is today, when centenarians are usually merely visited by the major and receive a bouquet of flowers. In contrast Renaissance centenarians’ portraits ended up hanging in Wunderkammern - next to those of dwarves, giants and Siamese twins. We should not jump to the conclusion that old age was uncommon, however: the number of elderly in the Renaissance has generally been underestimated – more on this topic later on.