Portrait of François I, King of France by Jean Clouet

This is the painting Portrait of François I, King of France, which is located in the Louvre in Paris. It was painting by Jean Clouet in about 1530.

The thing that is instantly brought to my attention is the man's proportions, or rather, his lack of proportions. His shoulders are extremely wide, each shoulder is about as wide as two of his heads. Usually, there is about half of a head in width for each shoulder. His neck is very wide, while his head is very small. Also, the eyes are very small compared to the nose.

Another thing I notice about this is the fact that the hands seem to be more or less in proportion to the head.

Possibly, the shoulders were drawn in such a way to show the king how he is regarded as somebody with high authority, somebody with a good reputation. On the other hand, if I didn't know that this painting is of the king, I would never have guessed that. When you think of a king, (you have to admit it), you usually think of some happy, nice man wearing a red cape with white fur and black spots on it and a crown decorated with multicolored jewels. This is anything but that description. The man is wearing very nice clothes (by nice I mean something that would get you noticed, rather than something I would suggest wearing). Usually, though, when a king is portrayed in a movie, he is usually wearing many things that make you understand that the man is rich. Here, you see none of that. No huge diamond rings. No crown with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. just a simple-looking hat with some strange fuzzy-looking things on the top.