This triple portrait was intended as a model for a full-length statue of Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (1585–1642). He wears the robe and skull cap of a cardinal, a position granted to him in 1622. On a blue ribbon hangs the Order of the Holy Spirit, symbolised by the dove just visible along the bottom edge.
Richelieu became one of the most significant political figures in seventeenth-century Europe, and in 1624 he was appointed Chief Minister to the French King Louis XIII (1601–1643). The head is repeated in this painting in three different poses: facing forward and in profile turned to the left and the right. The central portrait relates to the artist’s full-length painting Cardinal de Richelieu, also in the National Gallery.
The painting was executed in Paris and in 1642 was sent to the Italian sculptor Francesco Mochi (1580–1654) in Rome. Mochi’s statue was formerly in the Château de La Meilleraye in Poitou, but in 1793, during the French Revolution, the head was removed and is now lost. The remaining statue is in the Musée du Pilori, Niort.
The commission for a full-length statue of Richelieu had originally been granted to the more renowned Italian sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, but the project was abandoned in 1641 and a bust was made instead. Once in Paris, Bernini’s bust was criticised for its poor resemblance to Richelieu, and this was blamed on the inaccuracy of the painted profiles, supplied by an unknown painter, on which Bernini had based his work. Shortly after this, Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602–1661), soon to become the Minister of France following Richelieu’s death, asked the celebrated Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck to provide Bernini with a portrait on which to create the full statue (this artist had supplied Bernini with a portrait for his bust of King Charles I of England). However, Van Dyck died before the commission was confirmed.
Champaigne probably painted the central and right heads; an inscription above the latter reads: ‘this is the better one’. The rest of the painting was likely carried out by his workshop, as the costumes lack vitality and accuracy of detail. An earlier high-quality single profile of Richelieu by the artist is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. Painted underneath it and invisible to the naked eye are several other portraits in varying profiles.
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