Portrait of Felicitas Tucher

This is one half of a pair. In 1499 Albrecht Durer, back in his home city of Nuremberg and not yet 30, painted the merchant Hans Tucher and his wife Felicitas as matching portraits meant to face each other, like the wings of a small private altarpiece. He holds a ring, she holds a carnation with one bud still closed, both old signs of marriage and fidelity. Felicitas turns her full face one way while her eyes drift the other, a small living touch Durer catches without fuss. Her chain and buckle carry her husband's initials. Behind the couple he painted their joined coats of arms, so that closed, the two panels showed the two families made one.