Fouquet, Jean

(c. 1420-c. 1481)

   The most important French painter of the 15th century, Jean Fouquet was born in Tours, perhaps the illegitimate son of a priest, as suggested by the fact that the artist applied in 1449 to have his birth legitimized by the pope. Nothing is known of his training. In the 1440s he was in Rome, where he painted the portrait Pope Eugenius IV and His Nephews, now lost, as related by Antonio Filarete in his architectural treatise. Fouquet was back in Tours by 1447. There he set up shop and remained until his death sometime around 1481, as indicated by the documented references in that year to his wife as a widow. His self-portrait, an enamel created in c. 1450 (Paris, Louvre) and signed with a large and elaborate calligraphy, is the earliest known Northern self-portrait that does not tie into any sort of religious theme. In about the same year, Fouquet also painted the Melun Diptych (Antwerp, Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, and Berlin, Staatliche Museen), his most famous work. The bipaneled altarpiece shows the donor, Etienne Chevalier, King Charles VII's controller general, with his namesaint Stephen petitioning the Virgin and Child for his salvation. Some have suggested that the Virgin is a portrait of Agnes Sorel, the king's mistress who had involvements with Chevalier in governing the kingdom and who died in 1450. If this is in fact the case, then the work would be a commemorative piece in her honor. The work shows Fouquet's characteristic abstract, rounded shapes, emphasis on clarity, and linear contours. Fouquet also created a number of manuscript illuminations, including the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier (1452-1460), now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, and Giovanni Boccaccio's Des Cas des Nobles Hommes et Femmes Malheureuses of c. 1458 now in Munich (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; Cod. Gall. 369).

   See also Illuminated manuscript.