MUNICH.- The dialogue-exhibition contrasts works by Marlene Dumas with historical examples of the Tronie art form. Tronies are portrait paintings that are characterized by a particularly virtuosic handling of the artistic means, intense expressiveness and individual physiognomy. It was only recently that Tronies were discovered to be an independent form of painting through art historical research. The word Tronies comes from 16th and 17th Dutch usage and means ’head’, ’face’ or ’expression’. Tronies were initially painted from life as reference models of figures in historical paintings. They were particularly coveted by collectors as examples of an artist’s signature. Tronies as a form of painting became more emancipated over the course of the 17th century: Such images were increasingly created as autonomous artworks and became