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Panel Painting Louis XII, King of France

Object number

LDSAL324

Artist/Designer/Maker

Unknown artist

Production date

1515- 1519

Material

oil paint
oak

Technique

Oil on panel

Dimensions

height: 325mm
width: 210mm
height (frame): 400mm
width (frame): 285mm

Location

Burlington House - (on display)

Inscriptions

Inscription content

LE ROİİ LOİİS

Inscriber role/association

Artist

References

Reference (free text)

pp.426-429

Reference (controlled)

The Paston Treasure: Microcosm of the Known world (2018). [Exhibition]. Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven. 15 February 2018 - 27 May 2018.
    Arch-topped oil on oak panel painting of Louis XII, King of France (1462-1515), within integral frame.
    Louis d’Orléans (1462–1515), great-grandson of Charles V of France, married the daughter of Louis XI of France, his second cousin, in 1476. Louis XI was succeeded by Charles VIII who died without heir, whereupon Louis d’Orléans came to the throne as Louis XII in 1498.
    His marriage was annulled, enabling him to marry Anne of Brittany, Charles’s widow, in 1499. Anne died in 1514 and Louis was married that same year to Mary Tudor (1496–1533), sister of Henry VIII. Louis died in 1515, within three months of their marriage, and was succeeded by his cousin, François of Angoulême, the subject of the Society’s portrait of François I, King of France (LDSAL 325).

    In the Society's portrait, the King is shown in left profile with his left hand raised and resting on the painting's frame. The monarch wears a heavy red gown over a tunic of cloth of gold, with a white shirt beneath. On his head, a hat of dark velvet into which is tucked a gold medallion, and around his neck, the gold collar of St Michael, the knightly order established by Louis XI in 1469 to which the future Louis XII was admitted in 1483.

    The Society’s portrait of Louis XII, King of France is based on a portrait that has been attributed to Jean Perréal (c 1450–c 1530).