New! Meeting of St. Louis, King of France, with Pope Innocent IV – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée – Beautiful Catholic Art – Archival Quality

First, it was just the beauty of this painting and the colors of it that held our eye. That blue robe! The pomp of Saint Louis meeting the Pope! But then came the history. Why was such an important meeting held in a crowded place like that? Because it was the year 1248, and Pope Innocent IV was in exile in Lyons, France. He had been chased out of Rome by the emperor Frederick II.

It was a tumultuous time. That's what the war ax in the forefront of the painting is telling us. The Mongols were invading east Europe. Jerusalem had been conquered by the Muslims. The Pope was trying to mediate all that. Louis IX took up the Pope’s declaration of the Seventh Crusade, which included a crusade against the wicked Frederick II. Louis was a great king and a holy Christian, having been raised by his mother (to his left in the picture) to be both. His reign was known as the "Golden Age of French monarchy" due to his piety, justice, and promotion of the arts. Louis IX was canonized in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII. (source: Wikipedia)

The artist Louis Jean Francois Lagrenee (1724–1805) was a French rococo painter who enjoyed early success and was famous all his adult life. He won the Grand Prix de Rome for painting in 1749. In the decades that followed, he traveled through courts and art academies of Europe, where he was a celebrity. Towards the end of his life, he was given the title of Honorary Director of the Louvre, and in 1804, shortly before his death, Napoleon Bonaparte made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour. (sources: Web Gallery of Art and Wikipedia)

The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1773 and was created for the chapel of the École Militaire, (Saint Louis Chapel), in Paris, where it can still be seen today. It was one of 11 paintings of the life of St. Louis commissioned by the Louis XV, King of France. Title in French: Entrevue de Saint Louis, roi de France, et du pape Innocent IV, a Lyon, en 1248.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance.

There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.

We make Archival Quality fine art prints: 
– Acid-free paper
– Archival pigments 
– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less. 
– Above story of the art
– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.
– Rated to last 200+ years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.

Thanks for your interest!

+JMJ+
Sue & John
Lincoln, Nebraska

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”
~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by www.CatholicArtAndJewelry.com.