Photo. Giraudon.
SEIGNEUR DE PALISSE. COMTE DE LIGNY.
Attributed to J. Perréal. (About 1515). Attributed to J. Perréal. (About 1505).
Musée Condé.
To face page 202.
Fouquet, following in the steps of the Limbourgs, unquestionably gave fresh impetus to French portraiture and it is not unreasonable to suggest that the portraits of the so-called Preux de Marignan at Chantilly are sufficiently similar to his style as to be attributable at least to the same school. Before, however, bringing forward the proposition that these drawings may reasonably be ascribed to Jean Perréal we must first refer to the MS. de Saint Michel,[76] which is assigned to that master by no less an authority than Comte Paul Durrieu. And here, at least, we have some historical proof on which to rely. The Dedication to the King on the first page shows that this manuscript was a present from the Duc de Bourbon to his young Sovereign; and it is unlikely that the Duke would have employed upon this occasion anyone else rather than his own Court-Painter whom he might perhaps have desired to bring under the King’s notice. On one of the pages of this manuscript Charles VIII, who was delicate and small of stature, appears wrapped in a wide mantle which imparts to him an air of importance. As St. Michael, he stands between two courtiers and is surrounded by angels, who bear a strong resemblance to the floating angels in the triptych at Moulins attributed to Perréal. Moreover, in the same MS. there is a drawing of a head in profile which recalls a drawing at Chantilly attributed to Perréal, representing the Comte de Ligny, a patron of the artist and confidant of Charles VIII, whom he accompanied to Naples. It is not at all unlikely that de Ligny should have commissioned Perréal to paint his portrait, in which he is represented in a fur coat and cap, similar to that worn by his master the King in the well-known bust in the Museo Nationale at Florence.
A drawing, also at the Musée Condé, representing Lescueur, Bourdillon, and another which, although supposed by Bouchot to be Anne de Montmorency, is apparently meant for Louis XII,[77] have decided affinity with this portrait of de Ligny and with the profile-head in the St. Michel manuscript assigned to Perréal. We must remark, however, that these drawings are inferior in craftsmanship to the supposed portrait of Louis XII. The supposition therefore arises that they may be merely copies from lost originals. The interesting drawing on which Moreau Nelaton[78] discovered the name of Erasmus in the strange, almost illegible handwriting of Catherine de Medicis is most likely by the same hand, and this group of drawings all betray an unmistakeable relationship to another group likewise at Chantilly; namely, the well-known portraits of the Preux de Marignan from which the miniatures in the second volume of the MS. of the Gallic War are reproduced. Bouchot and also Dimier have tentatively ascribed both drawings and miniatures to Jean Clouet. But others, and amongst them both M. de Maulde and the present author,[79] assign the original drawings of the Preux to Perréal.
Plate L.
