Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder

In the first half of the 16th century Cologne, then one of the largest cities of the Holy Roman Empire, had no real tradition of portrait painting. Bartholomaeus Bruyn changed that. He began with altarpieces in the older Rhineland manner, then built a busy workshop turning out likenesses of the city's merchants and their wives.

His portraits follow a steady formula: the sitter at half length against a plain background, the face lit as the centre of attention, the costume and the hands rendered with crisp precision. Later in his career he picked up Italian ideas at second hand, through engravings after Raphael. Two of his sons carried on the trade, and the family kept Cologne supplied with portraits for the rest of the century.