Tommaso di Folco Portinari and Maria Portinari

Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428–1501); Maria Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born 1456)
painted by Hans Memling, location The Met

Click through on the link above to see this extraordinary art up close. It is just amazing in the beauty and realism. Originally these were part of a triptych which had a painting of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus in the middle, so each would have been facing that painting in prayerful devotion.

I discovered this via Lines and Colors, where we are told:

Look at the superb rendition of the couple’s eyes, the subtle modeling of the faces, the delicate variation of color in the skin, as well as the intricate attention paid to the woman’s jewelry, both of their rings, and the woman’s fingernails.

As if that wasn’t enough to wow the viewer, Memling has added a bit of trompe l’oeil trickery with a faux inner frame, overlapped subtly by the man’s cloak and the shadow of the woman’s praying hands, and more overtly by the veil of her headdress.

The Lines and Colors post features several parts of the paintings enlarged so you can get a great look at the details.