The Faerie Queens Mary of Burgundy, Tyrol
Master H.A. or A.H.
Title: Mary of Burgundy, Tyrol Artist: Master H.A. or A.H. Date: 1528 Medium: oil on conifer panel Dimensions: 17 x 12 ¼ in Location: Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art Notes: Mary, the duchess of Burgundy, was born in 1457. At the age of twenty, she married Emperor Maximilian I. In this profile portrait— extremely rare in the Netherlands and France during the fifteen century— the duchess wears a tall hennin, or steeple headdress, characteristic of the 1470s fashion. The headdress’ thick band of material is pinned to its base by an agrafe, an ornamental clasp. Her features closely match Maximilian's description of his young bride: "snow white complexion, brown hair and gray eyes, pretty and bright… Her mouth is rather high, yet clear and red." The attribution of the Lehman portrait to Master H.A. or A.H. is based on a monogram on the reverse of the panel that, until recent technical investigation, had been hidden beneath a later painting of the Virgin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s portrait, which dates to the late 1520s, attests to the popularity of images of Mary of Burgundy well after her death since the Habsburgs owed their Netherlandish territories to Mary’s marriage to Maximilan.