Jean Antoine de Baïf was a French poet and member of the Pléiade.
Catherine de' Medici was a patron of the arts made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance. Catherine was inspired by the example of her father-in-law, King Francis I, who had hosted the
Portrait drawing of Catherine de' Medici, by François Clouet, c. 1560
Catherine's daughter Marguerite de Valois, by François Clouet, c. 1560
Catherine's son Henry, duke of Anjou, by Jean Decourt, c. 1573. The contemporary writer Jean Papire Masson passed on the story that as Charles IX was dying, he asked for this portrait to be brought from the artist's studio, in order to say goodbye to his brother, who was then in Poland.
Triumph of Winter, by Antoine Caron, c. 1568