Bust of Cardinal Richelieu [SEP] material used
Bust of Cardinal Richelieu
The Bust of Cardinal Richelieu is a marble sculpture by the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is held by The Louvre in Paris,
Richelieu had hoped to commission Bernini to make a full-length sculpture, through his friend Jules Mazarin and the French ambassador in Rome François Annibal d'Estrées, but Pope Urban VIII would not permit it, so the sculpture became a bust, sculpted by Bernini between November 1640 and January 1641. He worked from images of Cardinal Richelieu that had been sent to Rome
painting measures . It was made in Paris as a study to be sent to Rome, where the Italian sculptor Francesco Mochi had been commissioned to make a statue (now lost) for the Château de La Meilleraye near Beaulieu-sous-Parthenay in Poitou. It is likely that the painting was also used by Bernini for his 1641 "Bust of Cardinal Richelieu", now in the Louvre Museum. Bernini had adopted a similar method for his 1636 "Bust of King Charles I", using a triple portrait by Anthony Van