Man with a Rosary

This man was never meant to be seen on his own. The panel was the right wing of a small diptych or triptych, and the Virgin and Child he prayed towards is lost. At least four versions of a Virgin and Child in Gossaert's manner survive, among them copies in Philadelphia and Nuremberg, and they probably record what the missing wing looked like. His right hand, holding a rosary, rests on his heart.

His name is not recorded. His clothes are unusual enough that the National Gallery wonders whether they are some kind of official dress, and comparison with portraits by the Haarlem painter Jan Mostaert suggests a member of the Council of Holland, the court that sat in The Hague for the Habsburg rulers of the province.

Dating him is a puzzle of its own. Most historians put the panel late in Gossaert's career, yet the man's haircut looks like the fashion of around 1520, and his costume mixes old-fashioned pieces with newer ones. He was painted on oak from the Baltic, the timber Netherlandish painters imported for their panels.