Portrait of a woman with a rosary

Dated to 1516, this portrait of a woman with a rosary is one of Van Cleve's most refined exercises in Flemish female portraiture. The rosary in the sitter's hands signals her piety while also providing a pretext for displaying hands — a traditional test of a portraitist's skill. The Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp preserves the painting close to its city of origin, where demand for high-quality small-format portraits from merchant families was intense. Van Cleve's ability to convey social standing through controlled detail in fabric and jewellery made him a favoured choice for such commissions throughout his Antwerp career.

The intricate detail of the rosary beads demonstrates Van Cleve's technique of applying careful, small touches of highlight over a dark base layer to create the illusion of polished glass or stone. The sitter's coif is rendered with tightly controlled brushwork that tracks the weave structure of the linen with textile-like precision.