Portrait of a Young Girl is a small oil-on-oak panel painting in the

Gemldegalerie, Berlin, by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus. It was

completed between 1465 and 1470, towards the end of the artist's life, and marks a
significant advance in the oeuvres of both Christus and contemporary portraiture.
The girl is set in an airy, three-dimensional, realistic setting, confronting the viewer
with an expression that is reserved, but alert and intelligent. She reflects the Gothic
ideal of elongated facial features, narrow shoulders, tightly pinned hair and an
almost unnaturally long forehead. The painting is widely regarded as one of the
most exquisite Northern Renaissance portraits. Art historian Joel Upton describes
the sitter as resembling "a polished pearl, almost opalescent, lying on a cushion of
black velvet." The panel builds on the work of the first generation Northern
Renaissance painters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, and was highly
influential in the decades after its completion. Its appeal lies in part in the intriguing
stare, accentuated by the slight misalignment of her eyes and asymmetry of her
eyebrows. (Full article...)