Ritratto di un uomo della famiglia Lespinette

By the 1480s Bruges was one of the richest cities in northern Europe, and Hans Memling ran its busiest portrait workshop. This man kneels in prayer, his hands pressed together, because the panel was never meant to stand alone. It was the right half of a small folding diptych. The missing left wing almost certainly held the Virgin and Child, so the sitter was shown praying toward her. We don't know his name. What survives is the coat of arms painted on the back of the panel, which ties him to the Lespinette family of France. Memling gives him dark curls, a fur-lined doublet, and a small scar across the nose. Behind him a quiet landscape opens up, the trick that made these northern portraits feel deep.