Photo. Giraudon.
THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.
Pol de Limbourg and his Brothers
From The “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.”
To face page 178.
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.
Plate XL.