Britain was the "motherland" of constitutional government. It pioneered constitutional monarchy, the responsible Cabinet system, and the bicameral system. Its constitutional development had also been a long one; Britain could be called a museum of constitutional archaeology.
Yet Napoleon had remarked that Britain's constitution was like black cloth set in a golden frame.
When the black silk covering the painting was lifted, a portrait of a young woman stood behind the curtain. She wore a fur stole, pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. Her hair was reddish-brown, and she wore an enormous hat.
It was a perfectly conventional portrait, but perhaps precisely because it was too conventional, the audience below showed little reaction, despite the woman in the painting being young and beautiful.
A Louvre Museum staff member held a scroll and introduced the portrait.
The opening piece had originally been Titian's "Venus and Adonis Hunting," but Talleyrand had taken that painting. The woman in this portrait had also been its collector: Isabella d'Este of Ferrara. She had actually been sixty when the portrait was painted. Titian had originally depicted her as she looked at that age, which had sent her into a rage, so he altered her appearance to that of a twenty-year-old.
The Louvre Museum also had a double portrait of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and his third wife, who had still been his mistress at the time. The painting showed the young woman dressing before a mirror, while her lover held the mirror and helped her prepare herself.
Titian had already been working in Ferrara then, thanks to Isabella. At the time, it was fashionable for anyone of even slight status to sponsor artists. Even if one could not become a collector like Lorenzo, one still had to employ the finest masters in order to display