Vrouw uit Oudendijk by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/8a3a2c0f3693522d6183d96b13f66f51

'Vrouw uit Oudendijk' was painted around 1550 by an unknown Dutch artist. Two words are written on the canvas: Vrouw, meaning Woman, and Oudendijk, the village she came from. The painter gave her a name and took his own away.

Look first at the green sphere in her hands. It is a pomander, a ball of perfume carried against the odors of the 16th century. Trace the gold thread embroidered into her bodice. Dutch portraits of this era used clothing and objects as a code for identity and status.

The technique is chiaroscuro: light carved from darkness. The bright orange sleeves, the white hat, the gold thread, and the green pomander become a language. She is unnamed but fully present.

She stares straight at us, and after nearly five hundred years, her face still gives nothing away. The painter is forgotten. The woman from Oudendijk is not.