Portrait of a Lady

Bruyn was the leading portrait painter in Cologne in the early sixteenth century, having studied with Jan Joest von Calcar and Joos van Cleve. Lacking royal patronage, Bruyn mostly depicted members of the patrician or upper bourgeois classes of his native city. Perhaps for this reason, his portraits are more individualized and less idealized, though still conforming to the standard compositional format of the day. Here, the sitter's social standing is indicated by her elegant costume and jewelry. The jeweled pendant bears the motto "als in eren" or "all in honour", and in her hands (adorned with gold rings and bracelets) she holds an apple referring perhaps to the Fall of Man and the human propensity for sin.