Portrait of a Woman with a Prayer Book

Bartholomaeus Bruyn, the younger · c. 1565

Medium

Oil on panel

Original size

46.6 × 33.3 cm (18 1/4 × 13 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Mannerism

Portrait of a Woman with a Prayer Book is a quietly commanding work — the sitter's composed gaze and the small devotional volume in her hands conveying a sense of inner life that feels immediate across nearly five centuries. Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Younger worked in Cologne during the mid-to-late sixteenth century, carrying on the portrait tradition established by his more widely known father, Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder. Where the elder Bruyn's work reflects the full confidence of the Reformation era, the younger painter operated in a more subdued register, his portraits marked by careful attention to texture — fabric, skin, the worn edges of a bound book — and a restrained palette that suits the private, devotional subjects he favoured. The prayer book here is not mere prop; in mid-sixteenth century portraiture, it served as a deliberate statement of faith and literacy, telling the viewer as much about the sitter's identity as her dress or expression. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the original panel, where its intimate scale rewards close looking in a way photographs rarely replicate. This hand-painted oil reproduction is executed on canvas using traditional oil pigments, preserving the tonal subtlety and surface warmth that make the original so affecting — a faithful rendering made to be lived with.