Portrait of an old man, bust-length, in a black cloak and cap

This incisive portrait represents an intriguing interaction between German and Netherlandish painting during the early sixteenth century. The presentation of the sitter shows affinities with the work of artists like Hans Schäufelein and Albrecht Dürer in the meticulous description of the hair and the observation of the lines of the sitter’s face. The picture is painted, however, on Baltic oak, a support which would almost certainly situate its place of manufacture in the Netherlands. It is possible therefore, that the artist may have been a native German who was travelling or working in the Netherlands when he painted the portrait, or a native Netherlander who was aware of the portrait conventions of German artists. The relatively sombre nature of the sitter’s dress would indicate that his profession was as a scholar, lawyer or perhaps a merchant. He wears a plain doublet beneath a voluminous over-gown of greyish-green. The collar of this garment is turned back as a revers (or lapel) to reveal the dark-fur lining. Such over-gowns had been widely adopted across Europe by the late fifteenth century and became an increasingly distinctive part of men’s fashion during the first half of the sixteenth century, with the fur lapels becoming progressively larger until around 1550 when the fashion was gradually dropped. The more sober style here suggests an earlier date, to around the early 1520s. The sitter’s unusual hat has also become slightly difficult to read with the darkening of the panel's pigments over time. Possibly, the sitter is in fact wearing two hats, a simple one with an upturned brim (probably a barett), with a larger hat of wool or fur (also with its brim turned up, worn over the top). In the infrared image (fig. 1), this appears to have originally been painted larger than it appears now and was later changed, probably to give a more harmonious overall appearance to the portrait.