Jean Fouquet

Jean Fouquet was one of the greatest artists of the fifteenth century. Among his patrons was Etienne de Chevalier, Grand Treasurer of France, who commissioned from him a Book of Hours: a strange mixture of amusing picturebook and devotional manual, linking the chronicles of Christianity to the hours of the day. Fouquet conceived this Book of Hours long before he began to work at it. Round each central picture, illustrating some incident from the life of Christ or the Virgin or some other important story from the Bible, he painted scenes of the places he and his patron had known in the king's service - Touraine and Italy, the castle of Vincennes, the streets of Paris. And, where it was appropriate, he portrayed people of his time - among the suppliants at the feet of the Virgin is Etienne de Chevalier himself, and the Three Kings coming to Bethlehem are King Charles VII and his two sons. In introducing these likenesses Fouquet anticipated the liberties later Renaissance painters were to take with religious subject matter.

For more information see section 27

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