Bildnis einer jungen Frau mit Flügelhaube

Rogier van der Weyden painted this around 1440 in the Low Countries, in the years just after Jan van Eyck had shown what oil paint could do, and you can feel that influence in the crisp linen of the young woman's winged bonnet, pinned together at the front. We do not know who she was. What is unusual is her look. Most sitters of that time turn inward or gaze past you, but her eyes come out to meet the viewer directly, steady and a little sympathetic. The pin holding the folds of her headdress is painted so precisely you could almost lift it out.