Barthel Bruyn the Younger

From about 1547, he worked with his father and his older brother Arnt on a series of 57 scenes from the New Testament for the cloisters of Cologne's Karmelitenkloster.

[1] His only signed painting, a diptych of Christ Carrying the Cross and Vanitas (1560, in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn), has served as a touchstone for scholars who have identified Bruyn the Younger's body of work by style.

[2] The sitters are usually depicted half-length against a flat background; the face is the center of attention, but costume details are crisply described, and prominence is given to the hands.

Bruyn typically worked within a limited palette of harmonious colors: black, white, gray, and browns, enlivened by limpid flesh tones.

[1] His paintings are noted for their "effective contrasts of light and dark areas and exquisite rendering of surface textures".