Ideal Portrait of a Lady

Painted around 1460 by the Early Netherlandish master Rogier van der Weyden, 'Portrait of a Lady' is an icon of Burgundian courtly devotion. The sitter's high forehead, narrow chin, and demurely clasped hands are framed by a crisp white veil whose folds form an almost diagrammatic geometry. Her identity was never recorded; traditionally she has stood for the Burgundian ideal of feminine restraint and interior prayer. Late in Rogier's career and unusually intimate in scale, the picture is one of the defining treasures of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Exhibition Venue

Walters Art Museum

Baltimore, United States