The Leeuwarden Series: Commanders-in-Chief of the Forces of the States-General For Schmelzing’s biography see the entry on the three-quarter length portrait of the sitter by Van Ravensteyn’s studio (SK-A-259). In contrast to the other Portrait of Nicolaas Schmelzing in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, and Van Ravesteyn’s portrait of him that is part of the series of officers’ portraits that was probably commissioned by Prince Maurits,42 Schmelzing does not wear a suit of armour, but rather a buff coat. The prototype for the present painting has not been located. The broad, undecorated collar is similar to that worn by Schmelzing in Van Ravesteyn’s 1611 portrait in the series of officers’ portraits. The prototype for the present painting could well have been executed around the same time. Rather than being a work by Van Ravesteyn, as has been stated in past Rijksmuseum catalogues, the present portrait shows the tighter modelling of the portraits in the Leeuwarden Series attributed to Van Mierevelt’s studio. Jonathan Bikker, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 374.