Louis XIII Crowned by Victory

Around 1634 the most powerful man in France after the king was Cardinal Richelieu, and he was building himself a palace in Paris, the Palais-Cardinal, known today as the Palais-Royal. For its gallery he ordered portraits of famous men from French history, and this was the largest canvas in the series. Louis XIII stands in armour studded with gold fleurs-de-lis while a winged Victory lifts a laurel wreath over his head and holds a palm. Behind her the view opens onto La Rochelle, the Protestant port that the royal army besieged in 1627 and starved into surrender the next year, a campaign Richelieu had directed in person. Champaigne took that background from a print by Jacques Callot. The Latin lines at the bottom praise the king for defending with arms the rights of the crown and of God.