Portrait of a Woman 1510 - 1515

Curator: Up next we have Bernhard Strigel's "Portrait of a Woman," painted in oil sometime between 1510 and 1515. It resides here at the Metropolitan Museum. What strikes you about it initially? Editor: Well, she looks a bit…uncomfortable? The clothes are clearly opulent, but her posture and that distant gaze suggest something else entirely. And there's this unsettling contrast with the calm landscape seen through the window; she seems trapped, somehow. Curator: Absolutely! Clothes were like walking billboards. Notice the headdress, the jewelry, and that richly decorated bodice; all scream wealth and status, carefully coded messages. Editor: Yes, there's definitely a message, but it feels…curated? Like she's playing a role rather than embodying it. Look at her hands—clasped tightly. That's not confidence; that's constraint. Curator: Interesting! In terms of iconography, clasped hands can symbolize marriage, fidelity…but your unease is not misplaced, I feel. Consider what wasn't portrayed. What about her personality or her hopes and dreams? Are they lost? Editor: Exactly! I’m interested by the symbolic nature of that open window. Typically, an open window invites us in to dream and expand, but the landscape, although pretty, seems so incredibly separate from her space, her interiority. A barrier. Curator: It's a stark reminder of limitations placed on women of that era. Bound by expectations, family duty, she had so little room for expressing individualism. She probably only gets that freedom to be an individual by dreaming. Editor: That's what makes it so haunting, isn’t it? This is such a great portrait of not just a person but a social and political era for women! It makes you wonder who this woman actually was when the dress and jewelry came off for the night? Curator: Strigel, consciously or not, has left us more than just a pretty portrait. A great tension of both the image and time period we can all relate to when viewing now. Editor: Makes you look differently at portraits for sure. I won't lie; I came away from that thinking more about her soul than her status.