Portret van een jonge vrouw

The woman is shown from the bust up in a three-quarter profile, wearing a starched lace ruff and an embroidered cap. She looks downward with a soft expression, her features illuminated by a light source from the upper left. This 19th-century engraving reproduces a master drawing from the Dutch Golden Age.

Hendrick Goltzius was the preeminent figure of the Haarlem Mannerists, a school noted for technical mastery and frequent engagement with complex allegorical themes. The subject, Maria Tesselschade, was a prominent member of the Muiderkring, an intellectual circle of poets and scholars whose work was central to the Dutch Renaissance and early modern literary tradition.