Retrato de hombre con bodegón en el reverso

A man turns to face the viewer while a still-life arrangement occupies the reverse of this double-sided panel, painted around 1462. Such double-sided panels were not uncommon in fifteenth-century Netherlandish painting, where the reverse of a portrait might carry a coat of arms, motto, or symbolic image. Memling's still life on the verso represents one of the earliest independent still-life compositions in Northern European art, making this panel art-historically significant beyond its portraiture.

The recto portrait employs Memling's characteristic three-quarter format with a dark background, focusing attention on the sitter's face and costume. His technique is precise and controlled, with flesh modeled through invisible gradations. The verso still life demonstrates the same meticulous attention to material surfaces—glass, metal, fruit—that distinguishes Netherlandish painting from its Italian contemporaries.