Portrait of a Woman in a Leopard Cloak  1545

The luxuriousness of this gentlewoman’s stole or mantel of European lynx is set off against a variation of a simple linen béguin headdress, a modest style initially associated with the Béguines, a religious order with many communities in the Netherlands. It was very commonly worn by women of status in the 1520s to 1540s and is consistent in time with the slashed sleeves, s...