Of Renaissance Painting In 1600, Frans Pou Workshop

Presumed Portrait of Francis IV Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua aged about 14 years. Oil on canvas Rare carved antique wooden frame and gilded Mecca. A fluted pattern dimensions with frame: 75 x 61 cm Francis IV Gonzaga, Italian Francesco IV Gonzaga, was an Italian nobleman born May 7, 1586 in Mantua and died December 22, 1612 in Mantua. He was the fifth Duke of Mantua (Lombardy region in Italy) and third Duke of Monferrato (Piedmont). Francois, the eldest son of Vincenzo Gonzaga and Eleanor de 'Medici, will soon be 26 years old when he succeeded his father who died in 1612. He remained in the history of Mantua as a man of justice (especially very attentive to the rights of the Jews of his city). To cope with the many debts accumulated by his prodigal father, he was forced to separate from Claudio Monteverdi though he was a great lover of music and theater. The youth of the "casa Gonzaga" is portrayed bust and wearing a green embroidered doublet with silver thread. He wears a large strawberry starched lace that the painter used as asserting a pretty face well characterized. Biography Frans Pourbus begins to distinguish itself as a portrait painter in the court of Brussels, where he painted the Archduke Albert and his wife, the Infanta Isabella. In September 1599, he was noticed by the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga, who is visiting Brussels and invited him to join his court in Mantua. From 1599 to 1609, Pourbus resides in Mantua. He hardly left Italy except for a few trips to carry gallant ladies portraits of the time, which will adorn the di Galeria Bellezze in the Ducal Palace. He met Rubens who is also the guest of the Duke between 1601 and 1608. He was called to Paris by the sister of the Duchess of Mantua, who is the queen of France, Marie de Medici. He just once for a brief stay at the baptism of Louis XIII in 1606, and then he settled in Paris in September 1609. He has a daughter in 1614 with Elisabeth Francken, he baptized in St. Elizabeth parish church. In 1618 an annual pension is allocated as him "king's painter" and, the same year he became a naturalized French. He was buried February 19, 1622 in the Augustinian church of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris. It was he who helped to set up in France the formal portrait. Thanks to the exceptional quality of his portraits, he spread the fame of Pourbus in Europe. Among his notable works, note the portrait of Henri IV (Battleship), Grand-length portrait of Medici of Mary Queen wearing the sumptuous dress with lilies of his coronation, another portrait of Marie de Medici in black mourning clothes as well as religious paintings such as St. Francis receiving the stigmata and the Supper as Cardinal Richelieu paid 10,000 pounds. Very nice condition for a work by more than 400 years! Sold with certificate of expertise