Portrait of Claude Jay (c. 1504-1552)

Portrait of Claude Jay (c. 1504-1552), oil on canvas, portrait inside an oval reserve on a band with inscription P. CLAVDIVS IAIVS SOCÍETATIS IESV VNVS E. PRIMIS DECEM SOCYS, 17th C., relined, greatly restored. Notes: 1. As more fully referred to in https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Le_Jay Claude Le Jay (sometimes: Claude Jay or, in Latin, Jaius) - article illustrated with an image of the painting in question - was born around 1504 in Mieussy, in Savoy (France) and died on 6 August 1552 in Vienna, Austria. With Ignatius of Loyola and others, he belongs to the group of ten founders of the Society of Jesus. In 1536, with his other companions, he went to Rome via Venice and participated in the deliberations that led to the foundation of the Society of Jesus (March-June 1539). After the official approval of the Society of Jesus (September 1540) Le Jay did pastoral work in Italy before being sent to Germany by the Pope (late 1541), where he would spend the rest of his life. In 1544 he was offered a chair of theology at the University of Ingolstadt which, after consulting Saint Ignatius, he accepted. Jay is therefore the first Jesuit professor, having been the founder and first rector of the College of Vienna, founded in 1551; 2. The portrait in question must have been part of one of several series of paintings (and also engravings) representing the first companions of Saint Ignatius., Dim. - 126,5 x 86,5 cm