His Crimson Eminence

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Much as Vespasiano Gonzaga built Sabbioneta and Pope Pius II built Pienza, Cardinal Richelieu – who was also Chief Minister of State under Louis XIII – created an “ideal” and symmetrical town in his own homeland: Richelieu, a village that still bears his name. Richelieu not only created a powerful and unified France, he also built a magnificent château, the largest in France until Versailles. The France he built lives on, but the château is long gone. Nineteenth-century real estate speculators finished the devastation begun by revolutionaries. Within its walls (as well as in other sumptuous homes, in Paris and elsewhere) the cardinal gathered the objects of his affection: artworks, which he hunted as if in a frenzy, and cats, which lived like princes. Collecting was a compulsion for Richelieu; he either commissioned work or else bought it. But he was also known to maneuver shrewdly for art; he certainly never disdained generous (or crafty) offers of gifts.