We know that Perréal at the beginning of his career lived at Moulins, where he held the post of Court-Painter to Duc Pierre de Bourbon; and that there he had the opportunity of studying Fouquet’s miniatures in the Antiquitates Judæorum, then an heirloom in the Ducal Library. Like Bourdichon Perréal appears to have had no taste for landscape, and it was chiefly portraiture that attracted him. This branch of art was, in fact, the prevailing interest of his time, and that so-called inquiétude du portrait manifested itself more or less strongly in the miniature-painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries until it almost entirely superseded all landscape work. We find an excellent portrait, for instance, of Charles V of France in the Heures d’Anjou[70] and another in the Bible Historiée[71].
The well-known portrait of Jean le Bon, father of Charles V of France, in the Bibliothèque Nationale is considered to be the prototype of French portraits, and it is therefore not inopportune to compare it with the later portraiture. It was discovered by Gaignières at Oyron, an old château of the Gouffier family, and was the only painting which the Regent in 1717 thought worth keeping out of the sale of this collector’s treasures. It is ascribed to Girard d’Orléans, who is recorded as having assisted Jean de Coste to decorate the Château de Vaudreuil. Girard is also known to have accompanied the King to England, when the latter was held prisoner there after the Battle of Poitiers. It is not improbable that this portrait—which is one of a set of four—was painted during his captivity.[72] Executed in England it no doubt gave an impulse to English Art of the same kind; although it is an undisputed fact that at that period there already existed the paintings in St. Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster,[73] through which England would appear to have a reason to claim—as suggested by Mr. Lionel Cust[74]—priority in time over France. On the other hand, there is nothing in England to compare with the exquisite miniature portrait of the Duc de Berry in the Très Riches Heures or with the work of Fouquet half a century later. The portrait in the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry—who, by the way, along with his brother Louis d’Anjou, shared their father’s captivity in England—was most probably painted from life, since it has that note of realism which is so characteristic of all French Art.
Another remarkable portrait is that of Louis II of Anjou, King of Sicily, also copied by Gaignières. Its date is 1415 and a miniature of it is to be found in the Livre d’Heures which once belonged to King René.[75]
We hear also of an artist whom Charles VI, when choosing a consort, sent to the various Courts of Europe to paint the portraits of eligible Princesses. The name of this artist has, unfortunately, not come down to us.
Plate XLIX.
