CHAPTER XIV

JEAN FOUQUET OF TOURS

It is reasonable to inquire with some misgiving whether the _Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry_[54], so far surpassing all other artistic creations of its period, are the only record of the labours of Pol de Limbourg and his brothers which has come down to us. This would seem to be almost the case, if we except the _Belles Heures de Jean de Berry_ (now in the possession of Baron Edmond de Rothschild,) which was the _livre de chevet_ of the Duke and is far smaller in dimensions than the _Très Riches Heures_.

We can trace in the _Bible Moralisée_ (_MS. Français_ 166 Bibl. Nat.) miniatures strongly recalling the style of the Limbourgs, and if we proceed to compare some of its later pages, supposed to have been the work of the young Fouquet, with similar subjects as in the Chantilly Codex a distinct resemblance can be observed. For instance a representation of _Paradise_ in the _Bible Moralisée_ closely resembles the Limbourgs' treatment of the same subject in the _Très Riches Heures_. A few pages farther on the same scene appears, attributed once more and not without reason to Fouquet--probably an early work--which shows the decided influence of his predecessors and tends to suggest that Jean Fouquet of Tours must have been a follower of Pol de Limbourg. At any rate his taste for landscape-painting is already in evidence here, and from the first he appears to have clearly grasped the fact that his predecessors' greatness lay very largely in this branch of the art of painting, so that he specially laid himself out to make it his own also. The banks of the Loire and the country surrounding his native town of Tours were his favourite subjects, and his treatment of these provoked the fervent admiration of his Italian friend Florio.

Fouquet was born in 1415, and was already famous when Louis XI ascended the Throne of France, and made him his Court-Painter. He was, moreover, well known in Italy before 1443; for he was commissioned whilst in Rome to paint a portrait of _Pope Eugenius IV_ which is known to have been long preserved in the Sacristy of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but which has only come down to us in a mediocre engraving. Filarete in his _Treatise on Architecture_, dedicated to Francesco Sforza, speaks of Fouquet as famous for portraits from life, and mentions this very portrait of the Pope, together with those of two members of his family. His name was still remembered in Italy in the sixteenth century (he died before 1480), for Vasari mentions him as _Giovanni Fochet assai lodato pitor_. And Jean de Maire of Belgium, who lived at the Court of that highly cultured patroness of the Arts, Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, recalls Fouquet with highest commendation. Indeed this princess, according to an _Inventory_ of 1516, seems to have owned a small _Madonna_ painted by this master: "_Un petit tableau de Notre Dame bien vieux de la main de Fouquet ayant etuy et couverture_."

We know that Fouquet painted the portraits of _Charles VII_ and of _Juvenal des Ursins_ in the Louvre, and also a recently acquired portrait of a _Man with a Glass of Wine_. The life-sized portraits of _Etienne Chevalier attended by his Patron Saint_ at Berlin and the powerful likeness of an _Unknown Personage_ in the Lichtenstein Gallery are by his hand. But although he won great fame as a portrait-painter during his lifetime it is upon his achievements as a worker in miniature that his highest reputation is based.

A very large number of the collections of miniatures have fortunately been spared to us, and they have come down to us in almost perfect condition. The most important may be enumerated as follows: the _Statutes of the Order of St. Michael_; the _Boccaccio_ at Munich; the _Book of Hours_ painted for Etienne Chevalier; the _Chronique de France_ in the Bibliothèque Nationale; some _MSS._ now in the possession of Mr. Yates Thomson; and, finest of all, the _Antiquitates Judæorum_ of Josephus. In the _Statutes of the Order of St. Michael_ (_MS._ 19819 Bibl. Nat.) Louis XI, as Founder of the Order, is portrayed surrounded by his thirty-six Knights. A similar miniature, but of somewhat greater dimensions, forms the frontispiece of the _Boccaccio_, which was executed for the Controleur Laurens Gyrart and is now in the Public Library at Munich. Count Paul Durrieu believes--and not without reason--that all the miniatures in this Codex are by Fouquet himself. On the frontispiece, a leaf not more than 20 inches square, Charles VII is depicted surrounded by about 150 dignitaries--judges, magistrates, etc.--passing judgment on Duc Jean d'Alençon. The scene is laid at the Castle of St. George in Vendôme, and amongst those present is Etienne Chevalier and the artist himself.[55] Most realistically conceived are the crowd of onlookers, some of whom, pushing forward, are being vigorously repressed by the guards. The _Chronique de France_ (_MS. Français_ 6465 Bibl. Nat.), in which fifty-five illustrations record events in the _Life of Philippe Augustus_, one of them showing the _Coronation of Charlemagne_ in the old Basilica of St. Peter at Rome, is another work by Fouquet which is full of points of interest. His illustrations to the French translation of the _Antiquitates Judæorum_ of Josephus--now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris--are usually reckoned as his _chef d'oeuvre_. The Duc de Berry had, in the first instance, commissioned André Beauneveu to execute this MS., but presently it came, by way of inheritance, into the hands of Jacques d'Armagnac, Duc de Nemours, who engaged Fouquet to complete the unfinished work. A note in the first volume of this MS. by François Robertet, secretary to Pierre de Beaujeu, Duc de Bourbon, records that the first three miniatures in that volume were by the Duc de Berry's artists, and the rest by Louis XI's "good painter and illuminator--Jean Fouquet of Tours." It is by this note that we are enabled to identify Fouquet's work. Subsequently the Codex became the property of Catherine, daughter of the murdered Duc de Nemours, who on her marriage to the Duc de Bourbon brought the treasure to the Court of Moulins. When, a century later, the last Duc de Bourbon, the famous Constable, was killed at the Sack of Rome, since he had no heirs and was an exile and fugitive from France, all his property, including this Codex, was confiscated and passed to the Crown. In course of time the second volume became separated from the first, and having strayed to England, eventually found its way into the Library of Colonel Townley, whence it was sold in 1814. At that time it still contained thirteen miniatures. It was not, however, until 1905 that it reappeared once more at a sale at Sotheby's when it contained but one miniature![56] Here it was secured by Mr. Yates Thomson, who recognised its author. Two years later Mr. Warner, Librarian of the Royal Library at Windsor, identified ten illuminated miniatures, then in the possession of King Edward VII, as the work of Fouquet and furthermore as belonging to the very MS. acquired by Mr. Yates Thomson. His Majesty graciously consented to unite his precious fragments with those of Mr. Yates Thomson, and the two owners agreed to present the whole work to President Fallières. Thus the two volumes were once more reunited after a separation of many centuries; but with two sheets still missing. The illuminations harmonise in every respect throughout, except that the designs in Volume I are somewhat superior to those in Volume II. Amongst them one representing the _Children of Israel led into Captivity by King Shalmaneser_ is most interesting and exhibits Fouquet at the zenith of his powers. We may specially notice the exquisitely beautiful landscape and the horses, which recall the art of Pisanello. Another scene labelled _Clementia_ shows the _Return from the Captivity_; and here we may observe a curious blending of classic architecture with the French domestic style of the painter's own day. This Codex of Fouquet's recalls the _Belles Heures_ of Ailly mentioned above, which is considered to be an early work of the Brothers Limbourg (_i.e._ circa 1403-13).

But of all the MSS. illuminated by this artist the one which must most particularly attract our attention is the _Book of Hours_ executed for Etienne Chevalier, the greater part of which is now preserved at Chantilly. Almost all these miniatures are reminiscent of impressions received by Fouquet during residence in Florence and Rome. They were apparently executed during the years 1453 and 1460, soon after his return from Italy and immediately after the completion of the celebrated diptych of _Etienne Chevalier and his Patron Saint_ and the _Madonna and Child_ commissioned by this same Chevalier in 1453 for the Cathedral at Melun in memory of his wife Catherine Buti. One portion of this diptych (the _Madonna and Child_) is now, as mentioned above, in the Antwerp Museum, whilst the other has found its way into the Kaiser Friedrich Collection at Berlin. The miniatures at Chantilly, forty in number, represent, if not the greatest, at least the most fascinating period of the master's artistic career. Like the MS. of the _Antiquitates Judæorum_ they also suffered many vicissitudes before finally entering the haven of the Musée Condé. Nicolas, Baron of Navarre and Bearn, a descendant of Etienne Chevalier, in the year 1630, when at the point of death entreated his nephew, to whom he bequeathed his manuscripts, to preserve and augment them "_en faveur des gens doctes_." Howbeit that same nephew sold not only the _Boccaccio_ to Munich, but also his ancestor Etienne Chevalier's _Book of Hours_. Whilst the former remained intact the latter was mutilated by a dealer, who separated the text from the miniatures in order to sell them individually. It is interesting to note here that Gaignière in his _Receuils_ had copies made of the portraits of Etienne Chevalier and of Charles VII from this MS. and attached to them explanatory notes, as follows: "_Charles VII copié après une miniature dans une prière d'heures faite pour Etienne Chevalier, trésorier general de France sous ce Prince_"; and again, "_Copie d'après une miniature dans un livre d'heures qu'il avait fait faire_."

We may therefore gather from these notes that as late as the seventeenth century the illustrations in this _Book of Hours_ had not been divided from the text. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, the portraits were again reproduced by Montfaucon; but this time they were not copied from the originals, proving that the learned Benedictine writer was then unable to discover their existence. Eventually in 1805 forty of these treasures were discovered at Bâle and bought by George Brentano la Roche of Frankfurt, whence in 1891 they passed to the Duc d'Aumale. Besides these forty, four more pages have been identified as belonging to this same book, as follows: one in the British Museum, which represents _David_ kneeling in prayer amid a beautiful landscape; a _Mariensippe (Genealogy of the Blessed Virgin)_ in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; a fragment in the Louvre representing _St. Margaret_ with a landscape background; and yet one more, _St. Martin dividing his mantle_, in the Conches Collection.

The forty miniatures at Chantilly are hung upon the walls of the _Santuario_--so called by the Duc d'Aumale because it sheltered his greatest treasures--_i.e._ the forty Fouquets, Raphael's famous _Graces_, the beautiful painting of _Esther before Ahasuerus_ and the _Madonna_ of the Maison d'Orléans.

The miniature representing _Etienne Chevalier with his Patron St. Stephen_[57] was intended as a frontispiece for this beautiful book. The powerful Lord High Treasurer of France is represented humbly kneeling, his eyes fixed steadily upon the Divine Mother, who, crowned and seated beneath a Gothic canopy, holds upon her lap the Holy Babe.[58] To the left angels are singing and playing upon musical instruments, whilst a band of children clad in white timidly adore their Infant Saviour. The architecture in the rear of the composition is of special interest, for Gothic niches enshrining figures of the Prophets are intermingled with panels in the style of the Italian Renaissance and Corinthian columns after the manner of Brunelleschi and Michelozzo. A rich display of gold in this miniature gives to it a strongly symbolic character, and may be likened to the dying rays of the sun of Mediæval Art, to which the artist desired to be not wholly indifferent. These exquisite designs clearly exhibit the genius of an artist who had been profoundly impressed by a sojourn in Italy, who had greatly profited thereby and who, by assimilating into his own individuality the fruit of his studies abroad, became a pioneer of pictorial art in his native land. The likeness of the donor himself is especially attractive, for it appears to have been taken direct from life, and, in spite of its smaller dimensions, is superior to the life-size portrait of the same person now at Berlin. It is this smaller presentation that Gaignières has copied in his Receuils.

_The Marriage of the Virgin_[59] is another scene of great interest. The high-priest, arrayed in mitre and vestments, places the hand of Mary in that of Joseph, the chosen suitor, who bears his budding rod. Like so many of the artists of that period, the painter has taken his scene from the _Legenda Aurea_ of Jacopo da Voragine, which tells us how Mary up to the age of fourteen years had lived in the Temple and had there taken a vow of virginity. Howbeit God commanded the High Priest Abiathar to assemble all the unmarried men of the House of David and to give to each a rod, upon which they were to inscribe their respective names. These rods were then placed upon the Altar and to the owner of the one which blossomed first the Blessed Virgin Mary was to be assigned. To this extremely solemn act Fouquet gives a semi-humorous note by the introduction of a realistic figure of Falstaffian proportions and a group of disappointed suitors. In the background behind the principal group St. Anne may be seen clad in exactly the same fashion as in the _Mariensippe_ in the Bibliothèque Nationale. The style of the Temple architecture gives the artist opportunity for introducing reminiscences of Rome. In the broad frieze of fighting warriors we can recognise part of Trajan's column; whilst the columns which flank the central arch record the gilt bronze columns once grouped around the _Confession of St. Peter_ in the old Basilica. These were, of course, in Fouquet's time still _in situ_ and they reappear in the miniatures of the _Antiquitates Judæorum_ in a scene where the victorious _Pompey enters the Temple in triumph_.

As a strong contrast to this composition, where Renaissance and classic architecture are happily blended, the _Annunciation_[60] transports us to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; and we can recognise the long stained-glass windows, the bronze lustres and the shrine which in Fouquet's day was raised on pillars behind the high altar. Here all is pure French Gothic impressed with the spirit of St. Louis. The action takes place in the foreground; Mary, modest and girlish of mien, and the Archangel, a prototype of those heavenly beings who figure in Jean Perréal's triptych at Moulins.

The scene of the _Visitation_[61] is a portico supported by marble columns, upon the frieze of which is inscribed the words "_Maistre Etienne Chevalier_." The graceful figure of Mary closely resembles that in the preceding illumination, while St. Elisabeth is presented in the garb of a Flemish housewife. An obviously French servant to the right, with dress tucked up and broom in hand, strikes once more that note of realism which attracts Fouquet so much. In the background is to be seen a well, around which children are playing.

Next follows the _Birth of St. John_[62] in the chamber of a French home. To the left neighbours come to present their congratulations. Two women prepare the bath and the linen, whilst the new-born infant sits quietly upright upon the Virgin's lap, who gazes down upon him with tender affection. That this figure is intended to represent the Mother of God is indicated by the fact that her nimbus is unusually large. In the Ghirlandajo frescoes of this scene at Santa Maria Novella there is also a figure which appears to be intended for the Virgin Mary; but very few artists besides Fouquet have introduced her into their presentations of this episode. Zacharias is clad in the robes of a lawyer. Beneath the scene are two quadrangles, in the first of which is inscribed the letter D, and within it is a soldier holding a shield, which in turn bears the initials E. C. (_Etienne Chevalier_). These initials occur repeatedly in the frieze running round the page. In the second quadrangle, where should have been the first words of the _Magnificat_, there is painted a lamb and a tasteless wreath of roses, evidently an interpolation introduced by the same hand that separated the text from the miniatures, which we may observe again in no less than nineteen out of the forty miniatures now at Chantilly. This composition of the _Birth of St. John_ exhibits, perhaps more than any of the preceding, the freedom with which Fouquet treats these Biblical scenes.

The same free tendency may be observed also in the _Nativity of Christ_ and in the _Adoration of the Magi_. This time and in both these scenes the artist has chosen neither the columns of a Gothic church nor a Roman temple, but remains faithful to tradition and presents the stable of Bethlehem. In the _Nativity_ we may perceive to the right the angel announcing to the shepherds the Birth of Christ. Hard by is a cavern, in which, according to the legend, the shepherds took shelter from a thunderstorm. The Infant Christ is extended upon the Madonna's blue mantle and St. Joseph kneels between the ox and the ass. A humorous note is again introduced by a shepherd playing on the bagpipes.

The Magi in the next scene are personified by the French King, Charles VII himself, and his two sons--the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI, and his younger brother, the Duc de Berry, then a mere boy. The presence of the Royal Guard clad in white and wearing helmets, leaves no doubt as to who the personages were whom Fouquet intended to represent. The fortified castle in the background is the Château de Chinon, whither Charles VII retired during the English occupation of Paris and where he received Joan of Arc.

Another illumination worthy of note is the _Betrayal_. The light which pierces the dark shadows and illuminates the scene itself is very remarkably treated.

The _Crucifixion_ in this series does not attain to the high level of the similar episode in the _Très Riches Heures_. Its chief attraction lies in the landscape, wherein, however, instead of Jerusalem and the brook Cedron, Paris appears with the Sainte-Chapelle and the river Seine. In the background the death of Judas Iscariot is most dramatically represented. The _Crucifixion_ scene in the _Très Riches Heures_ is, as we have already remarked, a most powerful creation, and by the introduction of _chiaroscuro_ Pol Limbourg succeeded in producing an effect which Fouquet, however much he may have admired it, did not attempt to imitate. He laid greater stress upon the _Descent from the Cross_. Amongst the men and women grouped around the Dead Saviour the mourning figures of the Holy Mother and near her of SS. Mary Magdalene and John, are clearly indicated. Joseph of Arimathæa holds a vase of ointment, while a man with a peaked turban close at hand has been pointed out as Gamaliel, the teacher of St. Paul.

Fouquet's power reaches its climax in the _Ascension_. Our Lord, surrounded by angels, is borne to Heaven on a cloud, and beneath Him golden rays apparently assist in raising Him upwards. Amongst the disciples gazing Heavenwards may be singled out the powerful figure of St. Peter, its simple grandeur reminding us of the creations of Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, which Fouquet must have seen and from which he seems to have drawn inspiration. The figure of the Virgin Mary is also most impressive. No longer the sorrowing Mother bowed down by grief as in the _Descent from the Cross_, she here appears as the Mother of Christ the King of Heaven, and she shares His victory over Hell and Death.

In the _Descent of the Holy Ghost_ Our Lady is seated upon a golden throne and takes a more prominent part than is usually assigned to her in other representations of the same scene.

Next to this comes the _Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin of her approaching death_; and in accordance with the _Legenda Aurea_ the Archangel Gabriel is presenting her with the palm of Paradise. This is a somewhat unusual scene,[63] and proves that Fouquet must have studied these legends with considerable care.

In the next illumination, representing _Mary's Obsequies_, the same palm is borne by St. John, whilst St. Peter is one of the bearers of the bier.

Fouquet's presentation of the _Coronation of the Virgin_ does not, as with the Limbourgs or Enguerrand Charonton, take place in Heaven, but in a hall richly decorated in the Renaissance style where the same Corinthian columns are introduced that appear in the _Frontispiece_.

But one of the most remarkable compositions of the entire series is the _Enthronement of the_ _Virgin_, a scene which Bossuet describes as follows: "_Le ciel aussi bien que la terre a ses triomphes, et l'exaltation de la Sainte Vierge dans le trône que son fils lui destine doit faire un des beaux jours de l'éternité_." And Fouquet does indeed depict this scene in a glow of colour which affords a vivid idea of triumphant festivity. The Virgin, clothed in white, is seated beneath a Gothic canopy to the left of the Trinity. Above her are countless angels and below saints, priests and prophets who are praising God in concert. Anatol Gruyer speaks of this miniature as the most important of all: "What Dante so well described in the _Divina Commedia_ Fouquet painted with masterly hand. It is a painting which may be described as sublime."

This wonderful series is brought to a close with a representation of _La Toussaint_.[64] Our Lord, surrounded by angels, is enthroned between the Virgin and the beloved disciple St. John. Below are seated apostles and saints, amongst whom we can again discover Etienne Chevalier clad in a red mantle beside his Patron Saint. On the opposite side kneels his wife, Catherine Buti.

Hung separately in the _Santuario_ at Chantilly these forty miniatures of Fouquet form an important monument of French fifteenth-century Art and provide strong evidence that French works of the highest merit certainly existed at that time. Their present scarcity is no doubt due to vandalism and wilful destruction. In these miniatures are apparent all the qualities so characteristic of French Art, _i.e._ its exquisite grace, its adaptability to foreign elements without loss of its own individuality, its sense of humour, its restrained realism and its overmastering love for Nature.