Background
He was born in 1420 at Tours, France, the illegitimate son of a priest.
(Jean Fouquet book includes 110 high quality reproductions...)
Jean Fouquet book includes 110 high quality reproductions of his greatest masterpieces with title and date.
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(Excerpt from Deux Miniatures Inédites de Jean Fouquet Ma...)
Excerpt from Deux Miniatures Inédites de Jean Fouquet Mais si les titres de Jean Fouquet à une juste admiration n'ont plus besoin d'être revendiqués, il reste encore un hommage, et des plus impor tants, à rendre à l'artiste. C'est celui qui consis terait à dresser un catalogue de ses oeuvres aussi complet que possible et rigoureusement critique, où l'on énumérerait ce qui peut être légitimement considéré comme étant sorti de son pinceau. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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He was born in 1420 at Tours, France, the illegitimate son of a priest.
A cleric apprenticed to a painter at about the age of 20, Jean Fouquet traveled to Rome in 1446, where he possibly served as a royal representative to the papacy.
Little is known of his life. His leap to fame is attested to by the probability that he accompanied a French mission to Rome in 1446, for the Italian artist Antonio Filarete recorded that Fouquet portrayed Pope Eugenius IV with his two nephews. In Rome, Fouquet would have seen the frescoes (later destroyed) in the Vatican by Fra Angelico, and the style of the famous Florentine had a deep and lasting effect on his own.
When Fouquet returned to France, he opened a workshop in Tours. He received commissions from Charles VII and members of his court and from Louis XI, who made him official court painter in 1474.
The earliest of Fouquet's several large panel portraits is probably Charles VII, painted about 1445 before Fouquet's trip to Rome, for it evinces no Italian influence. Fouquet manifested his sober clarity of vision in a self-portrait (ca. 1450; Paris), unusual in being a small, painted enamel roundel and notable as the first preserved independent self-portrait to be made north of the Alps.
About 1450 Fouquet undertook his most famous pair of pictures, the Melun Diptych (now divided between Berlin and Antwerp). This image was surely scandalous in its own day, for the Virgin is a recognizable portrait of Agnes Sorel, the King's mistress, shown with a geometrically rounded, exposed breast.
Similarly abstract and intellectualized is Fouquet's portrait Guillaume Jouvenal des Ursins (ca. 1455). This chancellor of France kneels in prayer before a highly ornamented wall, the figure placed close to the picture plane for immediacy. One other famous commission is far removed from the courtly milieu: a Descent from the Cross (ca. 1470 - 1475; Nouans). Monumental figures crowd the large panel, giving the effect of a sculptured frieze against a dark background.
Fouquet was especially adept in his miniature illustrations for manuscript books. The miniatures are notable for showing Parisian architectural monuments, and there is a unique illustration of the contemporary staging of a mystery play. Fouquet and his shop illuminated many other books; chief among them is the Grandes Chroniques de France (1458). Fouquet died in Tours before Nov. 8, 1481, when a church document mentions his widow.
(Excerpt from Deux Miniatures Inédites de Jean Fouquet Ma...)
(Jean Fouquet book includes 110 high quality reproductions...)
(. with chipped dustjacket, 1927 1st light tanning, col pl...)