CORNEILLE DE LYON
(b. 1500/10, The Hague, d. after 1574, Lyon)

Portrait of a Woman

c- 1535
Oil on wood, 20 x 16 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The French Renaissance was much assisted by the Italian enthusiasm of King Francis I (r. 1515-47), who during three invasions of the peninsula established contacts with artists and poets; it expressed itself primarily in a blossoming portrait painting. Young aristocrats increasingly commissioned likenesses of their sweethearts, demanding that artists observe not so much upper-class decorum as vivid naturalness. The miniature portraits of Corneille de Lyon, a native of The Hague, illustrate this tendency.

The sitter of this portrait was probably Marquise de Rothelin or Françoise de Longwy-Givry.