Lovely Early 17th Century Minature Recently on Ebay

From the seller:

A pair of early 17th century miniature portraits of a noble couple. Oil on tin, size 9,7 cm x 6,5 cm / 9,5 x 6,5 cm (3 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

From Me:

This didn't fit on my other blog but I thought it was important given how old the paintings are.

There is a lot of interesting tidbits with these paintings. Miniatures were the wallet sized pictures before the age of photography. There are a lot and all you need to do is a quick search to see ton. Painting on metal wasn't uncommon either - despite how weird it might look to us.

A few other late 16th/early 17th paintings that are oil on metal:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137343/the-virgin-mary-reliquary-unknown/

http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Aachen_Hans_von-Joking_Couple

http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Allori_Alessandro-Portrait_of_a_Woman

http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Albani_Francesco-Holy_Family_with_Angels

http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Elsheimer_Adam-Judith_Beheading_Holofernes

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82306/portrait-of-an-unknown-girl-portrait-miniature-unknown/

Based upon his ruff and her shawl/fall, my guess is late 1620's/early 1630's. The ruff he is wearing would be out of style but make sense with his suit of armor (think military uniform), whereas his bride would be wearing the latest fashion.

Altogether, a very lovely example from the Baroque time period.