Corneille de Lyon, 'Portrait of a Man holding a Glove', about 1550

We do not know who the man in this small portrait is. He’s dressed in what might be black silk with black velvet facings, and he holds a pale brown glove in one hand. His clothes, the style of his hair and beard, and the angle at which his hat is worn suggest a date of around 1550.

In the early twentieth century he was identified as Antoine de Bourbon (1518–1562), King of Navarre and husband of Jeanne d'Albret, the spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenots. There are several drawn and painted portraits of Antoine, but the resemblance to this man seems very general.

That said, the condition of the painting makes it difficult to identify the sitter or to describe the portrait accurately. The paint is worn and much retouched; the surface is covered by dirt, degraded and discoloured varnishes and badly discoloured retouchings. The background would once have appeared more strongly green and the red lake pigments have probably faded.

The panel is on board of walnut. It was once bigger but has been trimmed along all four sides. Technical analysis has shown that the ground is chalk and that there is a thin priming of lead white pigment. Infrared reflectography revealed no underdrawing (the preliminary outlining of a composition). Unlike contemporary artists – such as François Clouet, the Quesnels and the Dumoustiers – Corneille de Lyon did not accumulate a stock of drawings to be copied and circulated. The portraits associated with him rarely show signs of underdrawing and may have been painted from life.