Joris Vezeleer

Joos van Cleve

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a clean-shaven, pale-skinned man dressed in black gazes at us in this vertical portrait painting, which has an arched top. His body is angled to our right, but he glances back toward us with slightly drooping hazel-green eyes under slender brows. His face tapers to a narrow chin, and his pale pink lips are closed. His ear-length brown hair and bangs are mostly covered by a wide, black hat that sits cocked to our left. He wears a voluminous black coat with a wide fur collar over a black garment with a notched collar. A white shirt beneath is visible at the neck and cuffs. He pulls a bone-white glove onto one hand and wears a gold ring with a green gem on the index finger of his bare hand. The green background behind him glows around his shoulders and deepens to moss green around the arched top of the panel.