By the identifying inscription containing the sitter’s initials (AB), we know that the sitter was 60 years of age in 1610 when the portrait was painted. On the reverse of the panel there contains extensive text however this is indistinct.A well executed portrait particularly for the age, the subject has been portrayed in a black coat and white ruff and the Bible or prayer book he holds implies a pious character. The sitter who was born before Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the throne lived in a tumolous period in European affairs. The year that this portrait was painted was the very same year that the Catholic League was created. The Catholic Leage was a union of the Catholic ecclesiastical and secular feudal lords of Germany formed in order to combat the Protestant Union and it became one of the principal forces of Catholic reaction throughout all of Western Europe.Gortzius Geldorp (1553–1618) was a Flemish Renaissance artist who was active in Germany where he distinguished...