Portrait of a commander, three-quarter-length,
oil on canvas, 118.5 x 94 cm, framed

The setting of the painting and its stylistic features relate to the portrait painter Pierre Mignard, who from 1690 was the first painter of the court of France and director of the Royal Academy.

The sitter is depicted as a military commander, wearing black and gold armour with a lace collar and a blue silk bow; his left hand is resting on a commander’s baton. Both the armour and the long dark wig are typical of the later seventeenth century. The artist paid particular attention to the helmet in the foreground, a rather uncommon and archaic element in portraiture of the period. In the right background the outline of a fortress is shown, probably alluding to a battle victory of the protagonist.

Pierre Mignard initially trained in the workshop of the Mannerist painter Jean Boucher and later with Simon Vouet. He moved to Rome in 1635 and remained there for more than twenty years; crucial to the development of his style during his Italian sojourn was his study of the works of the great masters of the Renaissance and those of the Carracci. Already during his stay in Rome, the artist became famous for his portraits of the members of the papal court, portraying for example the pontiffs Urban VIII, Innocent X, Alexander VII and two cardinals of the House of Medici. In 1657 Mignard returned to France, where he devoted himself to both portraiture and fresco decoration of churches and noble residences.