Standing before a neutral grey background and portrayed half-length, Reinoud III van Brederode assumes a commanding pose with his left arm akimbo. His proper right hand most likely holds the hilt of a dagger, since a sword hilt - slightly cut off by the panel’s lower edge - can be seen just below his left hand. Although the sitter seems to be portrayed past middle age, Reinoud’s beard has not yet turned completely white.14 He is depicted here as a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, having been inducted into the order at the 1531 chapter meeting in Tournai. Hoogewerff states that he is portrayed as dean of the order,15 but Reinoud held this office only for a few months at the very end of his life in 1556.16 He wears a double golden chain from which the insignia of the order are suspended: a fire-steel (the Burgundian briquet), a flint issuing flames, and the golden fleece pendant. Order paraphernalia belonging to Reinoud, the insignia and red, black and white robes, are listed in his 1556 estate inventory.17 The chain was added in paint only and was painted in over the ribbons on Reinoud’s doublet. The doublet, although appearing to be black, must be a dark blue, since the colour could be penetrated by infrared reflectography. The doublet is ornamented with crossed white ribbons to which six pins with alternating floral motifs have been attached. Similar badge-like pins, with clusters of pearls and flame motifs, decorate Reinoud’s black baret, which is of a type that dates to the mid-1540s.18 De Meyere notes that something of Reinoud’s taste can be sensed in this portrait, since the 1556 inventory of his estate listed expensive clothing along with many pearls and precious jewels.19 Reinoud’s cape, draped elegantly over his shoulders, is pure black and has a slight nubby texture. As a Brederode, Reinoud III was a member of the leading family of Holland nobles, and he served in important advisory and military capacities for Charles V.20 This portrait has been attributed more often to Cornelis Anthonisz, because this artist is known to have included a portrait of Reinoud III in a woodcut series of his own design, the Lords of Brederode, c. 1550-51, which he also dedicated to Reinoud III.21 Furthermore, there are two equestrian portraits of Reinoud attributed to Cornelis Anthonisz, one a woodcut (RP-P-BI-126).22 and the other a painting in the Vianen Town Hall.23 None of these portraits, however, have any direct similarities to the Rijksmuseum painting. Both Reinoud III and Jan van Scorel moved in the same court circles (see the biography), and there were any number of occasions when the two could have met. From 1535 to 1545 Scorel owned portions of a house along with Wolfert of Brederode, Lord of Cloetinge (d. 1548), who was Reinoud’s brother.24 During negotiations preceding the impoldering of the Zijpe by Scorel and his partners in 1552, the painter came to an agreement with Reinoud III about the position of one of the proposed dikes.25 In 1546, Scorel is known to have hosted one of the guests at the meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Utrecht,26 an event that may have occasioned the Rijksmuseum portrait. Although the estimates are slightly earlier, dendrochronology does not contradict a date in the mid-1540s. Ultimately, the question of attribution must be decided on the basis of style. The strong silhouette, together with the patterns established by the placement of the hands and decorative features of the costume, stress the two-dimensional aspects of the composition. The planar conception of Scorel’s works is a characteristic that has long been recognised, having been expounded for the first time by Wescher in 1938 when differentiating Scorel’s compositions from Heemskerck’s.27 In this work, Scorel’s presentation is highly schematic, and this tendency can be seen in other official portraits, such as those of the ecclesiastics Joris van Egmond (see SK-C-1618), and Jean II van Carondelet in Brussels.28 Scorel sets heads and shoulders off sharply against the background in another work that is close in date, Five Members of the Utrecht Brotherhood of Jerusalem Pilgrims of circa 1541.29 This painting also relies on a restricted palette and includes half-length figures with elegant hand gestures along the lower edge. The geometric faceting in Reinoud’s face and the contrast of impasto highlights with thin glazes for shade is typical of Scorel’s portrait method, although in this case occasional retouching obscures some of these details.30 It is the underdrawing, however, that secures the attribution (fig. a). For portraiture, Scorel lays out facial features with assuredly drawn contours, such as the circles revealed around Reinoud’s eyes and the long, curvilinear lines in the nose. Scorel uses this type of underdrawing in his portraits almost without exception. M. Faries, 2010 Revised by the author, 2016 (download previous version below)