206 - FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1600, follower of Georges Boba. “Portrait of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine,” oak panel, single plank, unparqueted. 36.5 x 26.2 cm (warping and losses)

FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1600, follower of Georges Boba. “Portrait of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine,” oak panel, single plank, unparqueted. 36.5 x 26.2 cm (warping and losses) This work is a copy of the portrait of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (1524–1574), attributed to Georges Boba (1540–1599), an artist trained in Venice in the studios of Titian and Tintoretto. In 1569, Boba entered the service of the Cardinal of Lorraine, whom he accompanied to France, notably to Reims. Upon his patron’s death in 1574, he remained in Reims and entered the service of his sister, Renée de Lorraine (1522–1602), abbess of the convent of Saint-Pierre-les-Dames. Sources attribute to Boba the creation of a portrait of the Cardinal of Lorraine. For this portrait, the artist is said to have drawn inspiration from the portrait of his patron painted by El Greco (1541–1614), now housed at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. Charles de Lorraine (1524–1574), known as the Cardinal de Guise and later the Cardinal de Lorraine, was a French prelate and statesman who served as Archbishop of Reims from 1538 until his death. A major figure in the Wars of Religion, he led the Catholic party alongside his brother, Duke François de Guise, distinguished himself at the Council of Trent, and founded the University of Reims. As the kingdom’s foremost ecclesiastical peer, he crowned three successive kings of France in Reims: Henry II (1547), Francis II (1559), and Charles IX (1561). In the lower part of the painting, a horizontal cartouche bears an inscription in capital letters summarizing the end of his life: “Cardinal Charles of Lorraine died in Avignon on December 26, at the age of 50, in the year 1574.” Expert: TURQUIN Gallery