Jean Fouquet
Self-Portrait. c. 1450. Gold cameo and black email
on copper. Louvre, Paris , France
Jean Fouquet or Jehan Fouquet (1420
- 1481)
was a French painter.
Life
Jean Fouquet was born in Tours.
He is the most representative and national French painter of the 15th century.
Of his life little is known, but it is certain that he was in Italy about 1437, where he executed
the portrait
of Pope Eugene IV,
and that upon his return to France, while retaining his purely French
sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired
during his sojourn in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks,
which was the basis of early 15th-century French art, and thus became the
founder of an important new school. He was court painter
to Louis XI.
Works
Etienne Chevalier and Saint Stephen
1450 (40 Kb); Staatliche Museen Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
On his return
from Italy Fouquet entered the service of the French court. His first patron
was Etienne Chevalier, the royal secretary and lord treasurer, for whom he
produced a Book of Hours (1450-60), now dismembered but mainly in the Musee
Conde at Chantilly, and who appears in the Diptych
of Melun (c. 1450), now divided between Antwerp (Musee Royal) and
Berlin (Staatliche Museen). The Virgin in this work, at Antwerp, is rumored to
be a portrait of Agnes Sorel, Charles VII's mistress, whom Chevalier had also
loved. It was not until 1475 that Fouquet became Royal Painter (to Louis XI),
but in the previous year he was asked to prepare designs for the king's tomb,
and he must have been the leading court artist for many years.
The Melun Diptych, detail featuring The Virgin and Child
1453-54 (50 Kb); Panel painting; Musée de l'Hospice at Villeneuve-les-Avignon
Charles VII of France
c. 1444 (50 Kb); Panel painting; Louvre
Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (c.1450)
Wood, 93 x 85 cm, Antwerp.
Though his supreme excellence as an illuminator and miniaturist,
of exquisite precision in the rendering of the finest detail, and his power of
clear characterization in work on this minute scale, have long since procured
him an eminent position in the art of his country, his importance as a painter
was only realized when his portraits and altarpieces
were for the first time brought together from various parts of Europe, at the
exhibition of the French Primitives held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
One of Fouquets most important paintings is the diptych,
formerly at Notre Dame de Melun, of which one wing,
depicting Agnès Sorel as the Virgin, is now at the Antwerp Museum and the other in the Berlin Gallery. The Louvre has his oil
portraits of Charles VII, of Count Wilczek, and of Guillaume Jouvenal des Ursins, besides a
portrait drawing in crayon;
while an authentic portrait from his brush is in the Liechtenstein collection.
Far more numerous are his illuminated books and miniatures that have come down to us. The
Brentano-Laroche collection at Frankfurt contains forty miniatures from a Book of Hours,
painted in 1461
for Etienne Chevalier who is portrayed by Fouquet
on the Berlin wing of the Melun altarpiece. From Fouquet's hand again are
eleven out of the fourteen miniatures illustrating a translation of Josephus
at the Bibliothque Nationale. The second volume of this MS., unfortunately with
only one of the original thirteen miniatures, was discovered and bought in 1903
by Mr Henry Yates Thompson at a London sale, and
restored by him to France.
A note on diptych
Ivory
consular diptych of Areobindus, Byzantium, 506 AD, Louvre museum
A diptych is any object with
two flat plates attached at a hinge. Devices
of this form
were quite popular in the ancient world, types existing for recording notes and for measuring time and
direction. The term is also used figuratively for a thematically-linked
sequence of two books.
Note: This article discusses diptyches in the first sense. For paintings
arranged in such a way, see polyptych.
Traditional diptychs are boxwood, with stamped hour lines and lacquered or
varnished finishes. Some were also ivory (superior because it is easiest to
read and less prone to wear than wood), or metal (sturdy, harder to read but
less expensive than ivory).
One form of diptych was like a shallow box. It had two wooden leaves with
hollows on the inside edges, filled with wax, and space for a small wooden
scriber. This permitted one to take waterproof notes in the wax without wasting
money on paper. The wax could be smoothed and reused. It was probably excellent
for shopping lists or other reminders.
The other form was a portable sundial. A face was on the inside of each leaf. One leaf
formed a vertical sundial, the other a horizontal sundial. The shadow caster,
or gnomon
was a string between them, and calibrated how far open they should go as the
angle is critical.
A sundial can be adjusted to any latitude by tilting it so its gnomon is
parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. However, the longitude is critical
for an accurate local solar time, and is corrected by leveling the diptych on
its axis from east to west.
If the hinge of the diptych is level with the ground (classically measured
with a rolling marble in a slot), and both dials show the same time, the dials
will show the apparent solar time, the hinge faces north (in the northern
hemisphere), and the gnomon is parallel with the axis of rotation of the Earth.
Portable diptych sundial
Achieving all these functions is almost a lost art. A north-indicating
diptych is possible only if the two sundials do not have the same complementary
sun angle. The best real diptychs never consisted of two mirror-imaged 45
degree sundials; usually they were adjusted so that at the owner's latitude,
the bottom leaf was level not just east-to-west, but north-to-south. That is,
if the gnomon is not parallel to the earth's rotational axis, then since the
two faces have different trigonometric projections, they will show different
times. For example, if the gnomon deviates from the correct elevation angle at
9am or 3pm, each degree of error in the gnomon's elevation creates a difference
of four minutes (one degree of angle) in the time readings of the two faces.
However, at 6am, 6pm and noon, a deviation in the gnomon's elevation angle
produces no change in times. Near noon, if the gnomon deviates from pointing
north and south, the times of the two faces will deviate. At 6am and 6pm,
deviations from north and south have no effect. Holding a diptych so that its
gnomon-string is at the correct angle is often finicky, especially near
sunrise, sunset and noon, so many later diptychs had magnetic compasses and
plumb-bobs to help, but these were luxuries, not necessities.
Some diptychs also had rough calendars, in the form of pelikinons
calibrated to a nodus
in the form of a bead or knot on the string. These are accurate to about a
week: Good enough to time planting of crops, but not as accurate as a well-kept
calendar.
Some diptychs had compass roses (to measure bearings to geographic
features) and latitude measurement bobs. Some authorities believe that large
versions (a meter or more in width) were used for maritime navigation
before magnetic compasses were well-known. Diptychs may thereby have come to
acquire an air of magic in the ancient popular mind.
Of course, all these functions could be combined in one pocket-sized
artifact. Diptychs that combined writing and timekeeping often have a slot on
one leaf to hold the gnomon. The gnomon can be detached from that end so the
diptych can be opened completely for writing. On these the gnomon often has two
knots, one for timekeeping and the other to latch the diptych shut and protect
the wax. The "decorative" bead often seen on the end of extra-long
gnomon cords may have been rolled in a slot, or dangled as a plumb-bob to
determine if the diptych's hinge was level, or to measure latitudes.
It could be a very convenient thing to keep in one's
pocket even in the current era, particularly in an area with few well-developed
roads. Once a template is made for a current latitude, construction from nearly
any available sturdy materials would be trivial.
Appraisal
Fouquet was an outstanding French painter of
the 15th century. Much has been made of this Italian journey, the influence of
which can be detected in the perspective essays and Classical architecture of
his subsequent works, but the strongly scrulptural character of his painting,
which was deeply rooted in his native tradition, did not succumb to Italian
influence.
Whether he worked on
miniatures or on a larger scale in panel paintings, Fouquet's art had the same
monumental character. His figures are modelled in broad planes defined by lines
of magnificent purity. He was essentially a draughtsman, and it was his drawing
that imparted to his compositions their balance and clarity. His sculptural
sense of form went with a cool and detached temperament, and in his finest
works the combination creates a deeply impressive gravity.
Source
Olga’s Gallery
Self-Portrait. c. 1450. Gold cameo and black email
on copper. Louvre, Paris , France
Diptych
Image:Diptych Areobindus Louvre OA9525.jpg
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
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This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. The
description on its description page there is shown below. |
Description
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English: Louvre
Museum, Paris, France |
|
|
Artist/Maker |
Unknown |
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Description |
Ivory consular diptych of Areobindus, |
|
Dimensions |
H. 34 cm (13 ¼ in.), W. 11.8 cm (4 ½ in.), D. 0.9 cm (¼ in.) |
|
Credit line |
Anonymous gift through the Société des Amis du Louvre,
1951 |
|
Accession number |
Department of Decorative Arts, |
|
Location |
OA 9525 |
|
Photographer/Source |
Jastrow (2006) |
Français : Diptyque consulaire
d'Aréobindus, Constantinople, ivoire, 506 ap. J.-C.
Licensing
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I, the author of this work, hereby release it into the public domain.
This applies worldwide. In
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