The mysterious portrait and death of Agnes Sorel

French kings are notorious for their unfaithfulness to their legal wives, but there was one particularly daring beauty named Agnes Sorel who managed to get Charles VII, King of France, to appoint her as the first official royal concubine ever in France. When they met, she was 20, he was 40, married and had six children (the legal queen would go on to have eight more). But that didn't stop him from falling in love with her at first sight, and in the six years they spent together, she bore him four daughters and became one of the richest and most influential women in the country.

The image of Agnes, the official mistress, appears in several works of art, but the painting that is considered more interesting, and very bizarre, is the one that depicts her in the form of Maria, pale as a corpse and revealing a breast.

What is even more surprising is that the painting was done after her death and was commissioned not by her lover the king, but by the one who was the royal treasurer, Etienne Chevalier. Etienne and Agnes were not having an affair, so to understand why he commissioned a portrait of her as the Holy Mary, who looks quite promiscuous, and also hung the painting in a very surprising place: above his wife's tomb, you have to understand the sequence of events in the wonderful love story between the king and the official royal mistress.

Aeneas becomes a royal mistress

Agnes was born at a time when France She was restless and at war with the English. She was the daughter of Jean Soreau and Catherine de Maignelais, who belonged to the lower nobility. Her parents provided her with an excellent education, she learned to read, write, dance, sing and play several musical instruments. Agnes was considered a brilliant girl, a fascinating conversationalist and also very beautiful: blonde with blue eyes.

At the age of 15, her parents secured her a coveted position: to serve as one of the maids of honor of Isabel of Anjou, sister-in-law of Charles VII, King of France. When Aeneas was about 20, the king came to visit his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and it was the first time he had seen Aeneas and he was so astonished that he could not speak. Aeneas, on the other hand, was not enthusiastic about the king. He was twenty years older than her, was not a handsome man, and was considered a weak, depressed, and insecure king as a result of an unhappy childhood – his capricious mother told everyone that he was a bastard and that his father, Charles VI, was crazy.

The king was fascinated by Aeneas and therefore promoted her and appointed her to a new position, one of his wife’s maids of honor. He met with her secretly and gave her expensive gifts: expensive fabrics, jewelry, furs and castles. In a short time, Aeneas became the king’s official mistress, who called her “Lady Beauty”, she finally fell in love with him. Aeneas was always by his side: at the table, in bed, or in the council chamber.

The official queen, Marie of Anjou, remained loyal to the king. She did not oppose her husband’s new love affair and maintained friendly relations with Agnes. She was wise enough to understand that “marriage without love means love without marriage,” and decided to fill her time raising their 14 children.

The contemporaries considered Agnes the most beautiful woman in France, but no one believed that Charles would remain faithful to her for more than a year or two, but Agnes was full of surprises. She took great care of her appearance and did everything to always appear sensual and attractive: her hair was carefully styled, the train of her dress was much longer than that of the other women in the palace, and she made sure that the neckline of her dresses was so deep that they could clearly see her breasts and nipples. She often walked around in dresses that regularly exposed one breast.

The love between Aeneas and the king grew stronger day by day and she bore him three daughters (one of whom would be the mother of Louis de Barza, husband of Diane de Poitiers(An important royal concubine in her own right). Aeneas brought the king out of his depression and motivated him to continue fighting against the English enemy. She made him a strong, decisive, and self-confident king. His forces slowly expelled the English, who had occupied much of France for almost 50 years.

Until death do us part

The recognition of Agnes as an official mistress meant that together they ruled the country, as if nothing in the world could stand in their way, except perhaps death. By virtue of her position, Agnes became friends with the most powerful people in the kingdom: Jacques Coeur and Étienne Chevalier. Jacques Coeur was a wealthy merchant who was appointed Minister of Commerce. Most of the courtiers owed him money, and the king was his biggest debtor – Jacques actually financed the release of Normandy From his own pocket. The king made sure he was friends with Aeneas, but it was still important that she knew the person responsible for all the financial affairs of the kingdom. Aeneas and he had a lot in common: both came from a relatively lowly background and achieved the highest possible status, and both were envied by almost everyone, so they became very good friends.

Étienne Chevalier served as the royal treasurer. Étienne obtained the vast sums necessary to finance the long war with the English. The king asked him to fulfill all of Agnès's wishes and whims, they became very close and he became her confidant.

While Charles VII was busy fighting in Normandy, Etienne Chevalier received information about an English plot to bribe the king's Scots Guard to capture him. Etienne quickly told Agnes the secret and she decided that she should warn the king herself. Although it was winter and she was eight months pregnant, Agnes set out on a journey of hundreds of miles to finally reach her lover.

The lovers only spent a short time together until Agnes went into labor, but the birth was unsuccessful. The fourth daughter and Agnes did not survive. Agnes was 28 years old.

The mysterious portrait of Agnes Sorel

After her death, Étienne of Chevallie turned to Jean Foucault, his and Charles VII's official painter, and commissioned him to create a diptych (a painting consisting of two panels connected by hinges), with two dedication panels to hang above his wife's tomb.

In the left panel we see a magnificent corridor decorated entirely with marble tiles and containing two men. On the right, the client of the painting, the treasurer Etienne Chevalier, kneels in prayer, looking aside and seems lost in thought. His name Estienne, written in the old style, is on the marble column behind him in gold letters.

Next to him stands his patron saint, Stephen (Etienne in French), his right hand resting on Etienne's shoulder, the other hand resting on the New Testament on which is one of the stones with which he was murdered, he looks away with a slightly bored look. It is certainly appropriate to present a supporting saint next to a person with a prominent and vulnerable position in the intrigue-filled royal court of Charles VII, since, as is known, the king could be fickle in his graces. The saint is also intended to be Etienne's advocate for honesty before the Virgin Mary, who is shown in the right panel in a heavenly area, sitting on a throne carried by angels. In her lap sits the baby Jesus, pointing towards Etienne to suggest that his prayer has been heard and that he can hope for divine grace.

What is surprising is that a strange atmosphere is created due to the presence of the red and blue angels, and even more surprising is that Maria is seen with one of her breasts exposed.

Depicting the Virgin Mary uncovering a demon is not new, there are many other works in which she has been depicted.
Breastfeeding Jesus as a symbol of motherhood. The main difference here is that the breast does not attract the child's attention, which is why Mary looks a bit erotic, of course not by chance.

Maria is depicted as Agnes Sorel, to glorify and elevate her. She sits on a magnificent chair, on her head a sparkling crown made of gold and set with precious stones, presented as the queen she truly felt in reality. Her dress has a generous neckline, revealing a perfect breast that certainly explains why the king admired her so much and he was probably not the only one.

Why Etienne commissioned her portrait: First, from today's perspective, it is easy to think that it is sacrilege to depict a sinner, after her death, as the Holy Mary, but in the 15th century, it was believed that the king, appointed by God himself, was considered holy and bestowed holiness on everyone he touched, so it was right and appropriate that Agnes's painting should feature the colors red and blue, which are the colors of Christian holiness, and with the addition of white, the colors of royalty.

Secondly, Agnes and Etienne had an excellent relationship. She trusted him so much that she promoted his career and appointed him as the executor of her will. Therefore, it is only natural that he admired the woman who influenced the king and thanks to whom France was liberated, and who knows, maybe he was also in love with her.

These are good enough reasons to want to hang her portrait above his wife's grave, Agnes was probably more important to him, he preferred her to always be by his side at least on the wall. Eighteen months after Agnes's death, rumors began that she had been poisoned and the main suspect was the Minister of Commerce, Jacques Cor, who was arrested and put in prison. This is not surprising considering that everyone owed him money. After about three years in prison he managed to escape to Italy and the charges against him were dropped.

When the painter Jean Foucault painted the painting, Jacques Kerr was in prison. Etienne knew that he had been wrongly accused, but he could not openly defy the king. In the painting, Saint Stephen wears a blue robe decorated with gold stripes with a pattern of jagged petals that resemble in color and shape Jacques Kerr's coat of arms, and this was probably Etienne's way of indicating which side he was on.

At the time, Agnes was thought to have died of dysentery, but modern scientists who examined her remains have concluded that she died of mercury poisoning. Since mercury was sometimes used in cosmetics or to treat worms, it is not certain whether she was murdered. After her death, her cousin, Antoinette de Manila, took her place as his mistress, and Charles VII died 11 years later. Today, the tablets hang in two different cities, Agnes's in Antwerp, and Etienne's in Berlin.

The painter, Jean Foucault, also continued to serve the next king, Charles VII's son, Louis XI. The portrait of the painter, which was originally attached to the hinge that connected the two panels, is currently on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.