French school 1566 Christ in a trompe-l'oeil medallion 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 is said to have sent to the Roman Senate in the time of Augustus, describing the physical features of Jesus of Nazareth. The prototype of the true circular portrait of Christ, following this description, was probably invented in Flanders and disseminated in France by Jean Clouet, who likened it to the king (Portrait de François Ier en Christ, circa 1515, Columbus Museum of Art; an unlocated version is known). The interest of our later version lies in the fact that the text is written in French rather than 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. It could be compared to the "François Ier en déité cosmopolite" by Nicolas Belin (Nicoletto da Modena, c. 1490/1495 - 1569), held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (parchment on oak). This artist, who worked with Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, moved to England in the service of Henry VIII and his successors in 1537.