A Miniature Book of Hours of Exceptional Artistic Quality by the Jouvenel Master for the Use of Nantes, with Four Miniatures by the Master of Enea Silvio Piccolomini
Book of Hours. Horae B. M. V. for the use of Nantes. Illuminated manuscript on vellum in Latin and French with 16 large miniatures by the Jouvenel Master and the Master of Enea Silvio for Charles de France(?). Nantes or Angers, around 1450-55. 172 leaves, complete, the miniatures in immaculate condition appearing in vibrant colours. Sexctodecimo (92 x 65 mm). Modern binding, covered by brocade fabric of 17th or 18th century.
An impressive late work by the Jouvenel master, exactly of the type of the “Small Jouvenel Book of Hours” (Eberhard König) of highly unusual miniature size, decorated with exquisite lateral scrollwork borders on every text page. It provides new insights into an old problem in French art history: not entirely executed by his own hand, it was created for the use of Nantes and is one of the works that this Master, very likely Jean Fouquet's teacher, apparently produced after Fouquet’s return from Italy, as the crucifixion miniature shows. The book was created after some of the talented younger members of his workshop, flourishing in Angers around 1450, had left. The younger painter, to whom he entrusted the four evangelist miniatures, is one of the most astonishing French artists of the time. In the manuscript containing several texts by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II. (Getty Ms. 68), this master reaches the artistic level of Barthélemy d'Eyck.
The attribution to the Jouvenel master is due to Professor Eberhard König, leading art historical authority on the circle of the Jouvenel Master, the Geneva Boccaccio Master and Jean Fouquet, who wrote his dissertation and other important articles on these workshops. An in-depth catalogue entry by him can be sent on request.
Literature: Otto Pächt, Jean Fouquet: A Study of his Style, in: Warburg Journal, IV, 1940-41, 85-102. - Charles Sterling, La peinture médiévale à Paris, I, Paris 1987, II, 1990. - Eberhard König, Un atelier d’enluminure à Nantes et l’art du temps de Fouquet, in: Revue de l’art 35, 1977, p. 64-75; idem. Französische Buchmalerei um 1450. Der Jouvenel-Maler, der Maler des Genfer Boccaccio und die Anfänge Jean Fouquets, Berlin 1982; idem. Les Heures de Marguerite d’Orléans, Paris 1991.
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