Portrait of a Elderly Lady

This portrait of an elderly lady, around 1470, in the Louvre, is one of Memling's earliest surviving portraits and demonstrates his mastery of female portraiture from the start of his career. The white wimple and dark garments identify the sitter as a widow or mature woman of means Hans Memling brought serene, refined beauty to Flemish devotional painting, becoming the leading artist in Bruges after the death of van der Weyden Portraiture flourished during the Renaissance as humanism elevated t

The sitter's aged features are rendered with sympathetic precision beneath her white wimple. Memling's careful modeling of the face captures the dignity and character of the elderly woman with characteristic gentleness.