Portrait of a Woman
1460
unspecified
From the collection of Rijksmuseum
1460
unspecified
From the collection of Rijksmuseum
This is a close-up portrait of a woman in a dark dress. She wears two thick gold chains around her neck, one with a small pendant. The chains aren’t just jewelry—they were a status symbol in 15th-century Europe, showing wealth and family ties. The artist painted her face softly, almost glowing against the dark background. We don’t know who she was, but someone paid to have her remembered. To see more portraits like this, look up *sfumato*—a technique that blends colors so smoothly you barely see the brushstrokes.
