Ritratto di donna

Rembrandt had been in Amsterdam only a couple of years when he painted this in 1633, and portrait commissions were pouring in faster than he could handle alone. We do not know who she is, as with many of his sitters from that decade. What dates her is the dress. The great pleated millstone ruff and the close diadem cap were the sober choice of an older, well-off woman at a moment when younger sitters were already dropping the stiff collar for softer lace. Rembrandt paints the face with real attention and lets the cap dissolve into fine grey lines. The oval shape was fashionable for a formal portrait meant to hang as one of a married pair.