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A Cardinal
Unknown - Enlarge image
A Cardinal
- Object:
Panel
- Place of origin:
Normandy, France (probably, made)
- Date:
ca. 1470 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Stained glass
- Museum number:
C.407-1919
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The V&A purchased this and another panel (inv. no. C.408-1919) from the stained-glass dealer Grosvenor Thomas in London in 1919. The other panel shows a male civilian, and is also now half-length. Both panels have been cut down from larger compositions and framed at the sides with fragments of non-original glass. The figures stand in an architectural setting, presumably once topped with canopies. The backgrounds are painted in leaf diaper - blue behind the cardinal, red behind the young man.
Although we do not know the original location of the panels, they may have been painted in Rouen about the years 1450–75. The distinctive drawing style and the careful smear shading of the face suggest this connection. They may be compared especially with the heads of prophets in a Tree of Jesse window in the church of Saint-Maclou in Rouen, of about 1470.

