Portrait of Louise de Halluin, dame de Cipierre

Louise de Halluin sat for this small panel while she was still an unmarried attendant to Catherine de’ Medici, queen of Henry II of France. The Art Institute’s catalogue entry notes that her dress belongs to the fashions of the mid-1550s, and that the gold chain at her narrow waist, the pearl necklace and the band of pearls on her hood harmonise with the rich but restrained ornament of the French court. Corneille de Lyon, born in The Hague and settled at Lyon, made such likenesses his specialty: painted on modest panels that could be packed and carried as the court moved from one palace to another, they answered exactly the habits of a peripatetic nobility, and their precious, jewel-like finish was prized for its intimacy. They remain among the most vivid records we have of the faces of the French Renaissance. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.