Hulin de Loo, Georges: Early Flemish paintings in the Renders Collection at Bruges: exhibited at the Belgian Exhibition, Burlington House, January 1927 (London, 1927)

j$9$ SCHOOL OF QUINTEN METSYS, ABOUT 1540. $S#
PORTRAIT OF A MAN WITH A BLACK HAT. $Ss?$S

Oa\ panel : diameter 17 centimeters.

FILLING almost the whole surface of the tondo, is shown
a man’s head of fresh and finished colouring indicating
the solid qualities of the painter. In the full maturity
of his age, the model is visible up to the shoulders only; he
is clothed in a black cloak revealing a damasked vest of the
same colour; through the opening is seen a red waistcoat,
embroidered in gold, and a white chemisette. A hat, also
black, shows up against a background of green verging on
5S The fashions, as well as the characteristics of the painting,
the softened merging of the shade into light and that kind
of thin vapour which deadens all the outlines, a direct inherit-
ance of the researches and discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci,
all these things help us to fix the date of the panel at about
Mr. Hulin de Loo has connected this portrait with the
School of Quinten Metsys; the purely pictorial peculiarities
would already suffice to reveal an Antwerp studio at the
beginning of the 16th. century; but the learned professor has
also recognised certain traits, which derive directly from