Portrait of a Young Woman with a Pink  1569

This young woman offers a pink (or dianthus, related to the carnation) to someone on her right, probably her betrothed. The sweet-smelling pink symbolized a young woman's hopes for marriage. At her waist is a gilded girdle, or belt, from which hangs a pomander, a pierced container for sweet-smelling herbs to combat the foul smells of crowded cities. Bruyn was a portraitist...