BRUYN, Barthel the Younger
(b. ca. 1530, Cologne, d. ca. 1608, Cologne)

Portrait of a Young Woman with a Pink

1660s
Oil on panel, 44 x 36 cm
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

This young woman offers a pink (or dianthus, related to the carnation) to someone on her right, probably her betrothed. The sweet-smelling pink symbolized a young woman's hopes for marriage. At her waist is a gold girdle, or belt, from which hangs a pomander, a pierced container for sweet-smelling herbs to combat the foul smells of crowded cities.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.