VIENNA.- In the run-up to the exhibition “Das holländische Gruppenportrait” (9 Sept. to 21 Nov. 2010) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Irene Andessner staged a two-part tableau vivant which follows the example of the Dutch regent pictures of the Haarlem School. This genre marks the 17th century breach with the tradition of the church and the landed gentry being the sole patrons of the arts. Citizens with high social status become clients of artists and owners of their works, thus laying the foundations for a free market in paintings and sculpture. As the subjects of portraits they become protagonists and, at the same time, protectors, in the sense of patrons and collectors of the visual arts. In her living pictures “Art Protectors” Irene Andessner interprets this historic change