Christiaan de Hondt, abbot of Ter Duinen

The single portrait of Christiaan de Hondt, abbot of Ter Duinen, at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp may function as one wing of the diptych commission or as an independent devotional portrait, dated to 1499. Abbot de Hondt was the head of one of the wealthiest Cistercian monasteries in the Low Countries, and his decision to commission this portrait from the Master of 1499 speaks to the intersection of monastic piety and elite visual culture in late 15th-century Flanders. The painting shows de Hondt in three-quarter view against a plain dark ground, the standard format established by Flemish portraiture since Jan van Eyck. His hands may be shown in a prayer gesture, reinforcing the devotional rather than purely commemorative nature of the commission.

The master achieves a penetrating likeness through careful observation of de Hondt's individual features — high forehead, firm jaw, direct gaze — using the layered oil glazes that Flemish painters had developed to capture subtleties of skin tone and texture. The Cistercian white habit provides a stark tonal contrast with the dark background and the abbot's darker features. No landscape element softens the psychological directness of the image.