Christ in a medallion in trompe l'oeil
oak panel, one board, not parqueted
Height : 40cm
Width : 31cm
Dated (?) 1566 and inscribed in a philaster.
Old restorations
The letter of Publius Lentulus is an apocryphal text that this so-called procurator in Judea would have sent to the Roman Senate, at the time of Augustus, describing the physical features of Jesus of Nazareth. The prototype of the true portrait of Christ, following this description, and circular, was probably invented in Flanders and diffused in France by Jean Clouet assimilating him to the king (Portrait of Francis I as Christ, circa 1515, Columbus Museum of Art; an unlocated version is known). The interest of our version, which is later, is that the text is written in French and not in Latin, the pictorial material is a little more Venetian, and above all the decoration of cartouches and cut-out leathers, derived from Rosso's creations in the gallery of the Château de Fontainebleau and disseminated through engravings, is noteworthy.
It could be compared to the "François I en déité cosmopolite" by Nicolas Belin (Nicoletto da Modena, circa 1490/1495 - 1569), kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (parchment on oak). This artist, who worked with Primaticcio in Fontainebleau, went to England to work for Henry VIII and his successors in 1537.
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