Painting with gold
Artists' Techniques
Gold paint enriches many draperies, where it is shaded in pink with an organic colourant and sometimes in blue with indigo.
Gold highlighting in the 'camaïeu d'or' technique has been used for blue and pink drapery folds and for other details.
Claude of France praying to St Anne
Claude of France, kneeling at a prayer desk, is presented by St Claude to the enthroned St Anne who holds an open book on her lap and is teaching the Virgin Mary to read. The prayer desk on which an open book lies, is covered in a blue cloth embroidered with fleurs-de-lis and gold initials C. The arms of Claude’s mother, Anne of Brittany (France impaling Brittany), are held aloft by the angel on a pillar in the right border and are also shown in the lower border encircled by the motto, PENSON EN DIEU, with sprays of blue flowers on either side.