Bemberg Fondation Toulouse - Jean Bertrand, archevêque et cardinal de Sens - Capitoul - Jean CLOUET

Jean Clouet was the principal court portraitist to Francis I of France and arguably the most accomplished portrait painter working in northern Europe outside the German lands during the 1510s–30s. His portrait of Jean Bertrand, Archbishop and Cardinal of Sens, depicts one of the most powerful ecclesiastics in the French church — Bertrand served as Keeper of the Seals under Francis I and as a cardinal was one of the great lords of the Gallican church. Clouet's surviving portrait corpus is small; most attributions depend on a group of chalk drawings in Chantilly that can be related to finished panels.

Clouet works in the Franco-Flemish portrait tradition — three-quarter length, precise draughtsmanship in the face, flat neutral ground — but with a psychological directness that goes beyond his Flemish sources. The cardinal's scarlet robes are handled with confident flat washes of colour, the hierarchical simplicity of the costume emphasising the sitter's authority.