Catherine de' Medici (2022) Original Oil Painting by Nicolas Maureau

A red scarf held like a bullfighter's cape, a signal borrowed straight from the ring to mean the same thing it always means, death is about to happen: Catherine de Médicis revisits the royal portrait tradition of the En Majesté series, drawing on Renaissance half-length portraiture for its structure.

She is shown as a widow, and the scarf is not decorative. It points directly at the black legend that has followed her for centuries, the queen remembered as one of the instigators behind the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. Painted with the same restraint running through the series, the gesture does the work that no crown or sceptre could, a small object carrying a suspicion that history never quite resolved.

The portrait doesn't argue for or against the legend. It simply holds it, quiet and unresolved, in her hand.

Materials used:

oil painting

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 97 x 130 x 2cm / 97 x 130cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: People and portraits