Portrait of Anton Perrenot de Granvelle

Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle was the most powerful minister in the Habsburg Netherlands and the man responsible for bringing Antonis Mor to the attention of the Habsburg court. Painted around 1550 and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, this portrait is one of a pair — a self-portrait of Mor hangs as its companion — that commemorates the relationship between artist and patron. Granvelle was an extraordinarily well-connected figure: he had served both Charles V and Philip II, accumulated an enormous art collection, and saw in portraiture a form of cultural power as significant as any military or diplomatic achievement. Mor's image of him — red cardinal's robes, composed gaze, and an atmosphere of guarded intelligence — is among the finest of the artist's career.

The panel support is characteristic of Flemish court portraiture of the 1540s and 1550s. The cardinal's red robes are the dominant chromatic element and are rendered through layered glazes of red lake over a warm ground, with highlights achieved by allowing the lighter underlayer to show through. Mor differentiates the matte wool of the cassock from the smoother silk of the mozzetta through varied paint application.