3-035-709 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1632. Although the sitter's identity is not known, the painting was almost certainly one of a pair of portraits created to celebrate a marriage. To show off her status the young woman wears a large ruff. Her dress is richly embroidered with gold thread, and her cap and sleeves are trimmed with lace. In one hand she holds a pair of embroidered gloves, and on the other she wears a large ring. Her three-quarter length pose closely mirrors that of her husband, except that the husband's gaze and stance are more assertive while the wife's are more demure.