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| | Cardinal Richelieu by CHAMPAIGNE, Philippe de |
 | | Born in Brussels, Philippe de Champaigne settled in Paris in 1621 and became one of the city's leading artists, painting portraits and religious compositions for the Queen Mother, Marie de' Medici, the court of Louis XIII, the city administration, fashionable congregations and private individuals. |
 | | The sitter for this grandiose portrait, however, is obviously not one of the artist's Jansenist patrons: where they wear sober fl, he wears crimson; where they appear against a plain grey background, he stands in a palatial gallery against a great Baroque swathe of curtain, a glimpse of his château gardens behind him. |
 | | He is Armand-Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1585-1642), cardinal, Chief Minister to the King and virtual ruler of France from 1624 until his death. |
| www.wga.hu /html/c/champaig/richeli.html (485 words) |
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