Skull in a Niche

Barthel Bruyn was Cologne’s leading portrait painter in the early 16th century. His sitters, the city’s merchants, councillors and their wives, appear at half-length against flat backgrounds, with lively, expressive faces, carefully painted hands and precise detail in their clothing. He painted them honestly and without flattery. Born in 1493 in Wesel or Cologne, he worked in Cologne throughout his career and founded a family of painters continued by his sons. He also painted altarpieces, including one for Essen in the 1520s. His early work shows the influence of Jan Joest and Joos van Cleve, and from the 1530s he took on an Italianate manner inspired by Raphael and Michelangelo, probably through prints. He died in 1555. His portraits are in the National Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre and the Mauritshuis. Burgomaster Arnold von Brauweiler shows one of the city’s leading men.