Workshop of Quinten Massys, 'A Donor', about 1520

A brown-haired man, dressed in black robes trimmed with brown fur, prays over a book that rests on a raised flower bed. There are no indications of his identity, but with his turned-up nose and strongly cleft chin he looks very like Massys‘ portrait of Peter Gillis (Collection of the Earl of Radnor, Longford Castle) – it wouldn’t be surprising if the two were related. The panel is probably the left wing of a small triptych.

Behind him, a stream runs through a wooded landscape. A man has brought an ox to drink, and a woman carries a jug on her head – she may have come to collect water. Behind her is a gate made of wattle, and beyond the trees is a large thatched house and a dovecote with birds perched on the roof. People are approaching along a track which winds into the distance, towards blue mountains.

More than one artist may have worked on this panting. The landscape is somewhat in the style of Joachim Patinir. Its underdrawing seems to have been made by one artist, while another – perhaps even two others – painted it, making radical changes. The middle ground and figures, which seem to have been finished after the portrait was painted, are perhaps the work of one of Massys' assistants, while the distant landscape and principal figure may well have been by Massys himself.

A date of around 1520 would be consistent with the sitter’s clothing and with the dating of the panel itself through dendrochronology, a method of determining the age of a piece of wood by analysing its pattern of rings.