Portrait of a Woman

She holds her own left hand, and with the fingers of her right she draws attention to a gold ring set with a stone on her ring finger. That gesture is the clue the Rijksmuseum reads as a marriage. Her high sleeves and headcloth were fashionable around 1520, and her rich dress places her among the wealthy burghers of Haarlem or Mechelen, but her name is lost. Behind her, in the mountain landscape, a small hunting scene shows Saint Hubert meeting the stag with a crucifix between its antlers. The scene probably continued on a second panel, now missing, with a portrait of her husband. In Haarlem the confraternity of Saint Hubert admitted only men, which suggests the saint was chosen with him in mind.