Photo. Giraudon.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN.
Jean Fouquet.
Musée Condé.
To face page 182.
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’œuvre. 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).
Plate XLIII.