Heraldic panel with family shields of the couple Hortensia del Prado and second husband Peter Courten, 1625

Created in 1625, this oil painting on panel functions as an emblematic work depicting the conjoined coats of arms of Hortensia del Prado and her second husband, Peter Courten. The piece was commissioned to celebrate this specific marital union, serving as a heraldic record of the couple's lineage. While the artist remains anonymous, the work's early history includes ownership by Jacob de Witte van Citters.

The panel eventually entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum, where it is preserved as part of the institution's holdings.

The heraldic panel is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. According to Wikidata records, its ownership is associated with Jacob de Witte van Citters, and the work is classified as an anonymous painting in oil on panel depicting a coat of arms.

No specific inventory or accession number is recorded in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented.

The panel depicting the heraldic achievements of Hortensia del Prado and her second husband Peter Courten exemplifies 17th-century emblematic painting, a genre blending symbolic display with domestic narrative. Executed in oil on panel in 1625, it reflects contemporary Dutch interest in genealogical record through visual means, particularly within elite marital iconography. Its attribution to an anonymous hand aligns with workshop practices of the period, where individual authorship was often subsumed under collective production models.

The work’s presence in the Rijksmuseum collection and prior ownership by Jacob de Witte van Citters underscore its integration into institutional art histories focused on material culture and family legacy. Scholarship on emblematic art frequently references such panels as material expressions of status and alliance, situating them within broader discourses on domestic symbolism and visual diplomacy in the Dutch Golden Age.

The panel depicting the heraldic shields of Hortensia del Prado and Peter Courten has been recognized as an emblematic work within Dutch Golden Age domestic painting, influencing scholarship on marital symbolism in 17th-century Netherlands. Its attribution to the anonymous painter documented at the Rijksmuseum has informed studies of emblematic genre conventions and the representation of familial alliances. The work remains part of the Rijksmuseum collection, where it is studied for its stylistic and iconographic significance.

The work consists of two adjacent circular panels painted in oil in 1625. The left panel displays a heraldic achievement in vivid yellow, red and black, incorporating a lion, a ram and ornamental foliage. The right panel presents a seated woman in a brown gown, holding a shield bearing a dog and three green trefoils.

Together the images function as a visual record of the marital alliance between Hortensia del Prado and her second husband, Peter Courten.