Portrait of a Man 1520

Quentin Matsys made this portrait of a man sometime in the late 15th or early 16th century, using oil paint on wood. The smooth surface and subtle gradations of light speak to Matsys’s mastery of his medium. Oil paint allowed him to build up layers of translucent color, creating a lifelike representation of the sitter’s face and clothing. The fur trim on the sitter’s coat looks particularly plush, a testament to the artist’s skillful rendering of texture. But let’s not miss the forest for the trees: that fur represents a lot of animal lives, and skilled labor too, both in the trapping and preparing of pelts and in the making of the garment itself. Beyond its technical virtuosity, the portrait also provides insight into the sitter’s social status. His expensive clothing and jewelry, not to mention the cost of commissioning a portrait, suggest that he was a man of wealth and power. Matsys’s ability to capture these details speaks to the close relationship between art, craft, and commerce in the Renaissance.