Malouel, Jean

(c. 1365-1415)

   Jean Malouel, a painter from the town of Nijmegen, now Holland, was the uncle of the Limbourg brothers. He is known to have worked for Isabella of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI of France (d. 1435), and then, in 1396, he is recorded as court painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a charge he fulfilled until his death in 1415. For Philip he rendered five large panels for the Chartreuse de Champmol in Dijon, where he also was charged with painting and gilding Claus Sluter's Well of Moses (1395-1406; Dijon, Musée Archéologique). One of the five panels is perhaps the Martyrdom of St. Denis (fin. c. 1416; Paris, Louvre), believed to be the painting for which Henri Bellechose, Malouel's pupil, received pigments to complete it after his master's death. The work shows Denis, patron saint of France and first bishop of Paris, receiving his last communion on the left and undergoing his decapitation on the right, with Christ's Crucifixion in the center, the cross held by God the Father. Also attributed to Malouel is the Pietà in the Louvre (c. 1400), a tondo (circular panel) that brings the scene close to the picture plane to evoke piety from viewers. The work combines the Pietà theme with the Holy Trinity as it is God the Father who supports the bloodied body of Christ while the Holy Dove hovers between them. The coat of arms of France and Burgundy painted on the panel's reverse denotes that this work was also rendered for Philip, and perhaps the Chartreuse de Champmol. Malouel was among the artists who translated the French Gothic miniaturist tradition to largescale painting. His gilded back-grounds, rich patternings, and elongated forms qualify him as one of the luminaries of the International Style.