Hours of Étienne Chevalier

The Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet is created for the royal treasurer Etienne Chevalier illustrated Book of Hours, one of the outstanding works of Gothic book painting. It was probably completed after Fouquet's return from Italy in 1448 and in 1457, he had to perform other important orders from this time. The illuminations were devoted to the research due to Fouquet's masterful command of spatial representation and lighting and because of the vitality and originality of the miniatures has always been not only as a major work of the artist, but the book painting of the 15th century par excellence.

The founder is similar to shown on the frontispiece from the event later diptych of Melun in collaboration with Stephen before the enthroned Virgin and on another miniature of oration at the burial of Christ. His name Maistre Estienne Chevalier and his monogram are inserted at numerous points in the illustrations.

In contrast to later manuscripts Jean Fouquet led almost all the illustrations from his own hands. This is an indication for an early convening the handwriting in the work of Fouquet, as he still had no performance workshop, and also a reason why the miniatures of this manuscript are executed on such a consistently high level. In the miniatures of the employees of a journeyman is visible, a picture remained unfinished.

Several miniatures are divided in an innovative way in two image fields. The upper thereby presents the main subject, the bottom can be found in the scene or fantasy creatures, like those often found in Gothic manuscript illumination in Randdrolerie.

The book of hours remained in the family Chevalier, until it was sold at the end of the 18th century and cut apart so that today only 47 individual miniatures are obtained, of which most are trimmed to the edges and glued on wooden panels. Forty leaves came from the possession of the Brentano family, which it had acquired in 1805 in Basel, in the Musée Condé in Chantilly castle. Seven other miniatures are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Louvre and the Musée Marmottan in Paris, in London's British Library and at Upton House, and at New York's Metropolitan Museum. A 1981 discovered lyric sheet allows the reconstruction of the book in broad terms.

28427
de