Portrait of Elizabeth Spiegel
1639
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1639
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
This is a young girl in a shiny satin dress, holding a small wooden flute. Pearls dangle from her ears and wrists, and tall ostrich feathers rise behind her head. The painting is one of five—each shows a daughter from a rich Amsterdam family, and each stands for one of the five senses. This girl, Elizabeth Spiegel, is hearing. The feathers came from Africa, a sign of how far Dutch traders traveled in the 1600s. Look up other portraits from the subject: netherlands to see how families like hers showed off their wealth.
