THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Jean Fouquet.
Musée Condé.
To face page 190.
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.
Plate XLVII.
