Triple Portrait of Cardinal de Richelieu

Cardinal Richelieu appears three times on one canvas - two profiles and a full face - so that a sculptor in Rome could model a marble bust from the painting alone. Philippe de Champaigne renders the powerful minister of France with cool, exact restraint, the red robes crisp, the intelligent, guarded features studied from every side. Now in London's National Gallery, the unusual triple format makes a striking image in its own right: the most formidable statesman of his age coolly multiplied, fixed for posterity from three angles at once.