GIOVANNI CAPASSINI (Florence, circa 1510-Tournon, circa 1579) PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL FRANÇOIS DE TOURNON (1489-1562) Walnut panel, enlarged by approximately 2 CM on each side Identified on the reverse as Odet de Coligny, Cardinal de Châstillon and attributed to François Clouet Restored by the Rostin workshop in 1984. 17th century carved and gilded oak frame Walnut panel, enlarged, 17th CENTURY carved and gilded oak frame 34 x 26,50 CM - 13,4 x 10,4 IN. PROVENANCE : In the same family since the beginning of the 20th century. This unpublished panel is an important example of portraiture in France in the middle of the 16th century. Painted in Lyon around 1555, its layout and technique are close to those of the painters of Medici Florence or Sebastiano del Piombo, and it offers an interesting alternative to the art of Corneille de Lyon, who dominated the portrait market in the capital of Gaul in the middle of the century. Our painting is similar to a work in a private collection, reproduced in the catalogue of the exhibition "Lyon Renaissance. Arts et humanisme", Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2015 - 2016 (p.230), and also Camille Larraz, "Giovanni Capassini et Etienne de Martellange, portraitistes de la Vallée du Rhône", catalogue 166, slightly larger. There are several small variations. The costume is different, with brocade decoration here, plain in the other version; he has no cape, which is more hollowed out in the Avignon version; and the border on the galero's ears is black here, red in the other. Born in Florence, where he was probably a pupil of Andrea del Sarto, Capassini moved to France in 1553 to work for Cardinal François de Tournon, whom he had met in Rome. The latter had been archbishop of Lyon since 1551 and was a prominent member of the Council of King François I and then Henri II. This patron and model for our panel is depicted in profile in the right-hand panel of the Resurrection Triptych in the Château de Tournon, which is our artist's masterpiece. Mentioned in Lyon from 1555 to 1568, he was the master of Étienne de Martellange, a well-known architect, but also a painter, between 1565 and 1568. In addition to his religious compositions, we know of a small number of portraits by Capassini, including the one in the Musée Calvet in Avignon, signed and dated 1577.