This honest, close-up view of a gentle face is in keeping with Venetian portraits of the time. The sandy hair of the unknown woman is held at the back of the head by a shining golden net, the prevailing fashion in Venice. Dürer has used carefully distributed highlights to emphasise the curly hair falling to either side of the face; it has a formal counterpart in the fine ribbons of her dress. The fact that Dürer left the preparatory underdrawing of the ribbon on the left has led to the assumption that the picture is unfinished, but technical analysis of the entire surface of the painting speaks against it. It makes sense from a compositional point of view: the colour of the one ribbon matches the woman’s hair, while the other picks up the monochrome tone of the background and is also found in the young woman’s dark eyes.