Ole Worm: continuing bonds in a C17th Danish family portrait

Abstract A Danish family portrait from the early modern period includes Ole Worm and his three wives. This medical polymath brought new ways of thinking about natural history to the royal court when Denmark's fortunes were declining. The individuals and inscriptions represented in the portrait show Worm's academic standing and his allegiance to church teaching. Worm's tragic family life emerges from an analysis of the characters. This portrait may be interpreted at three different levels; at its deepest level, it demonstrates the representation of continuing bonds of, particularly spousal, affection in the seventeenth century.

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