Portrait of a Woman
Medium
Oil on oak
Dimensions
Overall, with arched top, 12 x 8 7/8 in. (30.5 x 22.5 cm); painted surface 11 3/4 x 8 1/8 in. (29.8 x 20.6 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of James A. Moffett 2nd, 1962
Accession Number
62.267.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of Northern Renaissance portraiture with *Portrait of a Woman* by Barthel Bruyn the Elder, painted in 1533. This oil on oak panel, measuring just 12 x 8 7/8 inches with its distinctive arched top, captures the elegance of Cologne's prosperous burgher class. Bruyn, a leading master of the Cologne school, specialized in such detailed likenesses, blending the meticulous realism of Early Netherlandish painters like Jan van Eyck with a distinctly German sensibility. Oil on oak was a favored medium in the 16th century for its smooth surface, which allowed Bruyn's precise brushwo...