Portrait of a Young Woman, possibly Christina Schweitzer (née Hoffman)

Georg Pencz

1547

Oil on canvas

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A young woman with blonde hair and a black beret is depicted in a formal portrait. She wears a red dress with black trim and holds a small bird in her hands. <p></p><p> The historic frame, a Genoese late 16th-early 17th century walnut cassetta frame, is a gift of the Douglas and Mary Olson Frame Acquisition Fund.</p><p>Dressed in a black beret, red dress with velvet trim and fur cuffs, white blouse, and short black vest, the young woman in this portrait is 20 years old (note inscription). She probably lived in Nuremberg, Germany, where Georg Pencz was a successful painter and engraver. Female portraits by him are rare. This one is likely a marriage portrait, commissioned as a pendant to a portrait by Pencz in Munich portraying a man in a matching outfit—black beret, red coat, white shirt