Chartreuse (liqueur) Chartreuse (liqueur) Chartreuse () is a French liqueur made by the Carthusian Monks since 1737 according to the instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers. The liqueur is named after the monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France. The liqueur is produced in their distillery in the nearby town of Voiron (Isère). Until the 1980s, there was another distillery at Tarragona in Spain. Chartreuse gives its name to the
Portrait of a Carthusian the artist’s signature (the fly’s position right next to ‘Petrus ΧΡΙ Me Fecit’ hinting that the fly might be the referent of ‘me’ rather than the painting.) "Portrait of a Carthusian" featured a halo above the monk’s head when it was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1944. However, halos are extremely rare in Early Netherlandish painting and the one in "Portrait of a Carthusian" has long been an object of speculation. Finally in 1994, in preparation for the Met’s exhibition "Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges", the authenticity of halo was publicly examined by a panel of