Cologne, Unknown artist, 'Portrait of a Woman', about 1495

Although we don't know the identity of this woman, her clothing and the objects around her suggest that she was painted in around 1500 and most probably came from Cologne. The design is simple but striking, with delicate details. The bright red cloth behind the woman echoes the colour of her bodice, which is bordered with gold thread and pearls, and provides a contrasting backdrop for her black gown and cap and her pale white skin. The peak of the headdress is a stiff gauze with a crisp V-shaped crimp at its centre – its edges cast a fine shadow on the woman’s forehead.

The portrait was almost certainly part of a diptych (a painting made of two panels), which could have been hinged at the centre. The woman is turned towards the left-hand panel, which might have shown the Virgin Mary (although diptychs of this kind were very unusual) or perhaps an image of her betrothed or husband.

The symbols on the ledge – the violets and white carnations in the cup to the left and the apple to the right – could refer either to the Virgin or to marriage, but it is not clear which is intended without knowing the subject of the other painting in the diptych. The apple, for example, might be a reference to the sin of the first woman, Eve, who in the Garden of Eden ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, even though it had been forbidden by God. In Christian tradition, Mary is seen as the second Eve and Christ, her son, the second Adam, who through his death atoned for the sin of humankind. Although the panel has been cut down at the top and bottom edges, it’s still just evident that the red cloth hanging behind the woman continued over her head in the form of a canopy – unusual in a portrait but quite common in images of the Virgin. The woman also holds a rosary, which was used as an aid when reciting prayers to the Virgin. However, the carnation was often found in double portraits commemorating marriage or betrothal (see, for example, our South German Portrait of a Man, which once, along with an image of the sitter’s wife, formed a double portrait).