Portrait of Pierantonio Bandini Baroncelli (on the reverse: the annunciation: The Virgin)

The man kneeling here is Pierantonio Baroncelli, a Florentine merchant who had settled in Bruges to do business, hundreds of miles from the city his family came from. He is shown in profile, hands together in prayer, in a pose an Italian abroad would have recognized from home and a Flemish painter could render with his own patient precision. This panel was one wing of a folding altarpiece, and on its far side, meant to be seen when the wings were shut, stands the Virgin of the Annunciation, painted grey to imitate stone. His wife, Maria Bonciani, knelt on the matching wing.