Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville

Guillaume d’Estouteville (1403-1483) was a wealthy, career churchman from a Norman noble family with ties to the French royals. He advanced to cardinal in 1439, archbishop of Rouen in 1453, and bishop of Ostia in 1461.

The present portrait is not a bust in the round but a high relief carved free of its backing. It was mounted on a wall rather than a horizontal support. The identification of the sitter of the present portrait was possible due to the resemblance to a figure on the now-dismantled ciborium commissioned by d’Estouteville from Mino da Fiesole for the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In the extant relief of the ciborium, the cleric gesturing to himself and to the snow falling at the apse of the church is surely d’Estouteville.