Photo. Giraudon.
THE ASCENSION.
Jean Fouquet.
Musée Condé.
To face page 192.
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.