Portrait of Francis the First of France, Du Tillet, Antique Print, 1849

The king sits enthroned in full majesty under a canopy of crimson and gold, in a blue robe powdered with gold fleurs de lis over a cloth of gold gown, a sceptre in his right hand, his feet on a cushion. The throne stands inside an elaborate painted architectural frame with two naked putti above and garlands of fruit at the sides. The sheet is lettered as a facsimile of a miniature from the Recueil des Rois de France of Jean du Tillet, a sixteenth century manuscript in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris.

The plate belongs to the second volume of Lacroix and Sere's Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Paris, 1849, a work that set out to describe the manners, trades, sciences, letters and fine arts of Europe between the fall of Rome and the end of the sixteenth century. Each sheet was drawn from the original object or manuscript and printed in chromolithography, a process still new in 1849 and here used with unusual richness.

Francis the First is the king who brought Leonardo to France and built Chambord, and a state portrait of him in his own lifetime is a subject with a very wide market. This is the most splendid single figure in the volume, gold on crimson with the French royal arms in full view, and it is a natural choice to hang alone in a hall or a dining room.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right edge. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the top left corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.