Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Clancy, Stephen Christopher

Titel

Books of Hours in the 'Fouquet style': The relationship of Jean Fouquet and the "Hours of Etienne Chevalier" to French manuscript illumination of the fifteenth century

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1988

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Jean Fouquet has long been considered one of the most influential figures in French art of the fifteenth century, although the means of this influence have never been established. Instead, this presumed influence rests on two major assumptions: (1) that he journeyed to Italy in the 1440s, returning with the artistic ideals of the Italian Renaissance; and (2) that he passed on the innovations of his most famous work, the Hours of Etienne Chevalier, to a large number of "workshop pupils." But factual support for the Italian trip is tenuous, and no documentary or codicological evidence has ever been established for the existence of a Fouquet manuscript-illumination workshop. This thesis tests these presumptions by searching among Fouquet-related Books of Hours for evidence of such a Fouquet illumination workshop. Combining the codicological method with analysis of style and iconography, this study divides these manuscripts into two different groups. Those Books of Hours with Fouquet miniatures are examined to see how Fouquet's contribution came to each manuscript. Those Books of Hours which reflect Fouquet's style or compositions from the Hours of Etienne Chevalier are studied for evidence of a common workshop origin, including similarities in painting techniques, production sequence, borders and other secondary decoration, and iconography. These latter Books of Hours test the impact of Fouquet's masterpiece, the Hours of Etienne Chevalier, on more standard, commercial illumination. The results reveal that Fouquet did not produce Books of Hours; instead, he received his commissions as an independent contractor. In addition, rather than reflecting a common workshop origin, Fouquet-related Books of Hours merely partake of a common tradition: the commercial emulation of the Fouquet style. Indeed, the Hours of Etienne Chevalier itself may have depended in part on the types of models shared by these more standard manuscripts. Libraires, or booksellers, may have been the major vehicles for spreading this commercial reflection of Fouquet, bringing artists and artisans together as necessary to complete books commissioned through their shops. Thus Fouquet's influenced standard illumination only indirectly, through the power of reputation and the desires of patrons, rather than through workshop practices.