Portrait of a Man with His Hand on His Chest

Portrait of a Man with His Hand on His Chest, painted around 1540, now at the Metropolitan Museum, is among Corneille de Lyon's most accessible works for American audiences. The gesture of the hand on the chest was a common portrait convention suggesting sincerity or an oath, though it may also simply reflect a fashionable pose. Corneille's small, intimate portraits were highly prized by collectors from the 16th century onward. Corneille de Lyon's distinctive small-format portraits on colored grounds—particularly his blue-green or red backgrounds that isolate the sitter's face with maximum clarity—established a formula that was widely imitated throughout 16th-century France.

The distinctive hand gesture adds dynamic interest to Corneille's typically restrained bust format. The careful rendering of the hand alongside the precise facial modeling demonstrates his skill in capturing both physical likeness and gesture within a compact composition.