Portrait of a Woman, by Master of the Holy Kinship, c. 1490–95
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Portrait of a Woman

Master of the Holy Kinship (German)

c. 1490–95

Medium
oil on wood
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
Framed: 44 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm (17 5/16 x 13 9/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 30.3 x 21.3 cm (11 15/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
Culture
Germany
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
Credit line
Bequest of Jane Taft Ingalls
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This portrait represents a woman in her later middle years holding a rosary made of coral with gold medals. Her identity remains unknown, but the richness and elegance of her black woolen gown with fur-trimmed cuffs and her coif of white sheer linen attest to her comfortable social standing. The prominence of her rosary is perhaps meant to suggest her personal devotion. The panel has been attributed to the anonymous Master of the Holy Kinship the Younger, a painter in Cologne (Germany) with a flourishing workshop in the years around 1500.