Portrait of a Noble Young Lady (Portret van een onbekende vrouw) is considered by many art historians, such as Paul Huvenne, former Director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, to be one of the best examples of Pieter Pourbus' portraiture. Huvenne writes about it that "[Pourbus] manages to lift the striking likeness that is expected of any portrait to an icon that radiates societal and spiritual values. In doing so, he endows the person depicted with a detached, but animated beauty that leaves no one unmoved". Identity of the sitter No inscription or family crest is to be seen on the painting, and none could be found after infrared or X-ray examination. However, the infrared photos reveal unidentified marks on the upper left hand side of the painting, which suggest that a crest or symbol was perhaps present on this side at some point (see infrared photos 1 and 2 in gallery below). It is therefore not yet possible to identify with certainty the woman depicted, but her rich dress and distinguished appearance suggests that she was of considerable standing. Her dress and its distinctive lace collar allowed Huvenne, who discovered this painting in 2006, to date the portrait as having been painted before 1560. The infrared examination conducted before the exhibition in Bruges in 2017 confirmed Huvenne's hypothesis and revealed that Pourbus executed the portrait in 1554. Pourbus's signature, a monogram, two "P"s separated by the master's mark resembling the numeral "4", appears on the upper right hand side, together with the date 1554 (see infrared photos 3 and 4 in gallery below). Clothes and fashion in 1554 The lady painted by Pourbus wears clothes according to the Spanish fashion of the time, but also with a flair for French fashion. Her high-necked gown is a ropa, which Spanish fashion spread all over Europe in the 1550s, trimmed with ruched white silk braid held in place with gold buttons. The ropa, probably Portuguese in origin, was a sort of loose-waisted mantle open in front, in which some authors have seen the continuation of the fifteenth-century surcoat. It often had double funnel sleeves, one part of which could be worn hanging, in accordance with a purely Spanish tradition. From Portugal it spread to Spain and was soon adopted in many countries, due to the influence of Spain at the time. In the 1550s, this new garment became extremely