Jan van Scorel (1529)

[python_regius]

An unpretentious portrait of an unknown man. He was 46 years old when Jan van Scorel painted him in 1529. His age and the date are given on the frame, as if a small piece of paper is stuck there. The man is fashionably dressed in a black fur-lined tabard over a black shirt with a stiff collar and a biretta on his head. His face is turned sideways, but his eyes address the viewer. It is his direct gaze that makes the portrait so relaxed. The same effect is achieved through the subtle details such as the delicate lines around his eyes and the stubble of his beard. Jan van Scorel was the first in the Northern Netherlands to paint this type of portrait of middle-class burghers and this is one of his earliest such pictures.   www.rijksmuseum.nl/