This painting has always been a bit of a mystery to me. It really does look like the work of Bruyn, her face especially but her dress does not look entirely as expected from Cologne, but it does not mean it isn’t North Rhine. 

Last year the painting was taken out of storage to be studied. So far fake aging has been identified as well as an understanding that the crest was added in the 19thC.

I’ll be interested to know to what extent her clothing has been altered, one element rings as untrue and that is the cuff. Not for being rather flamboyant but how the red has been treated- I suspect it is the other side of the cuff but might have been repainted over the wrist as it it was decoration. 

The paned sleeve is also seen in the Weidtz costume book and on the triptych on the figure of Amalia. But the specific style is straight from several Tom Ring portraits of women in the second half of the 16thC.

Interestingly while we are very familiar with the style of hat worn by Anne of Cleves I do have several instances of headgear that is very different.

Right now I am backtracking all my image references to group by date. So this is going to be a bit of a project but it is happening. This post has been brought to you by this search. I have a folder of a 215 images still to date, not including all the bildindex images that also need dates added.

But there will be a page on hats. Because they are extremely misunderstood. There are several forms and how they came about is very fun to track.