Amandus Ioannes du Plessis Cardinlas, Dux de Richelieu, Par Franciae etc.

Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal and Duc de Richelieu (1585 – 1642), became a cardinal in 1622. He governed France as chief minister from 1624 until his death in 1642. This portrait is one of several variants of a full-length composition showing the minister in cardinal’s robes and wearing the Order of the Saint-Esprit. For a prince of the Church to have himself portrayed standing like a secular prince was novel and was presumably intended to underline Richelieu’s role as statesman.