Portrait of a Man

Memling painted this in Bruges around 1470, when that city was one of the richest trading hubs in Europe and merchants from across the continent came to have their likeness taken. He was the portraitist they wanted. Notice the open window behind the sitter, with a green landscape running away into the distance. That setting, a face with real air and daylight behind it, was fairly new in Flemish portraiture, and Italian painters soon took it up. We do not know who the man is. The little tower out in that landscape may be a clue: the Torreman family, whose name means tower, put one on their coat of arms, and this determined figure may be one of them.