In 1865 Baron Triqueti, who often represented the Prince at these sales, was sent to Paris to acquire the famous Pourtales vase, a Greek amphora with red figures of the time of Phidias. For this interesting work of art he paid 10,000 francs; whilst two small Greek bronzes—one representing Jupiter and the other a statuette of Minerva—were knocked down to him for 8,000 and 19,300 francs respectively. Upon this occasion the Duke was bidding against the Louvre, the British Museum, and Monsieur Thiers. These two bronzes, which were found near Besançon, are of unequal merit; the Jupiter is of only average workmanship; but the Minerva statuette is considered one of the greatest treasures at Chantilly. Léon Heuzey places it in the late archaic period at a time when the Greeks were still endeavouring to ennoble and beautify their goddess before they finally arrived at the height of their ideal in the famous Athena of Lemnos. The fact that this statuette was found at Besançon indicates how highly Greek Art was valued, not only in Rome, but also in Cisalpine Gaul; for such small portable figures often accompanied their owners on their journeys, and who knows what great personage it may have been who brought this exquisite little Minerva with him to Gaul? We know that Tiberius never travelled without his much-cherished Amazon of the Vatican.

A fragment of an antique sarcophagus representing Bacchus and Ariadne was acquired for 7,200 francs at the Nolivos Sale and is exhibited now in the Salle Minerve along with the above-mentioned statuettes and some charming Tanagra figures.

On the death of his mother, Queen Marie Amélie, the Duc d’Aumale inherited a great many family portraits and miniatures, the most noteworthy among these being a life-size portrait of Gaston d’Orléans by Van Dyck, of which there is a replica in the Radnor Collection. This painting was given to Louis Philippe by George IV and was probably painted at the request of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, who was a sister of the Royal sitter. There is not the slightest resemblance in his features to the good King Henri IV, his father. Treachery lurks in his mouth and eyes, and we cannot help being reminded that he was the direct cause of the execution of the last Montmorency.

From the same source came a portrait of Queen Marie Amélie herself, painted by Gérard in 1817, and likenesses of the same Queen and two of her daughters by Vigée Le Brun; a portrait of Louis Philippe as Duc d’Orléans, when professor at Reichenau, by Winterhalter; and others of Philippe Egalité and his charming wife, a daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre, and of the Duc d’Aumale as a child by Robert Fleury. Most of the gems and miniatures are likewise from the collection of Queen Marie Amélie; and to the miniatures, in course of time, were added others of members of the Royal Family of France bought by the Duke himself, such as of Anne de Bretagne, François I, Gabrielle d’Estrées and her two sons, Henri II, Henri IV, and Sully, the famous Minister of Finance; of the Duc de Guise (le Balafré), Marie de Medicis, Marie Thérèse, Queen of Louis XIV, the Grand Dauphin and his wife Marie Anne of Bavaria, and many more.

In 1865 Mr. Colnaghi sold to the Duke Meissonier’s Les Dragons sous Louis XV and a landscape by S. W. Reynolds, who is best known as an engraver. The charming portrait of Maria, Lady Waldegrave with her Daughter by Sir Joshua, was bequeathed to the Duke by Frances, Countess of Waldegrave; and Lord Holland in 1860 presented him with Talleyrand’s portrait by Ary Scheffer. From Sir Charles Robinson the Duc d’Aumale acquired some fine Italian manuscripts, and an interesting Rheno-Byzantine painting representing the Emperor Otto I seated between two allegorical female figures, each holding a small globe signifying the vassal states of the Empire. This painting, which is of considerable historical value, is apparently a detached portion of a MS. illuminated for the Emperor about the year 1000. From the same source came another fragment, a Resurrection, dating from the fourteenth century and belonging to the Sienese School. This hangs in the Rotonde near a miniature of a Christ on the Cross attributed to Giulio Clovio.

In 1868, two years before his exile was suddenly terminated by the downfall of the second Empire, the Duc d’Aumale bought for the sum of 600,000 francs the collection of the Marquis Maison; and amongst the pictures which formed it were eight Descamps, three Marilhats, one Gros, four Watteaus, four Greuzes and two paintings by Prud’hon. After that followed the acquisition of one of Fromentin’s finest works, La Chasse au Faucon en Algérie; whilst a sea-piece by Vandervelde together with the Dunes at Scheveningen by Ruysdael were bought at the San Donato Sale.

Presently there came the celebrated Vierge de la Maison d’Orléans by Raphael, which the Duke acquired at the Delessert Sale for the sum of 160,000 francs—a fascinating picture supposed to be one of the two panels described by Vasari as having been painted for Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, and of which he says “that they were small but exceedingly beautiful examples of the master’s second manner.”[20] At one time in the possession of Gaston d’Orléans, this charming work passed from France into Flanders at the end of the sixteenth century, where it is supposed to have belonged to David Teniers the Younger. Passavant thought that it was then that the background was repainted and the shelf with the various pots and vases added—a supposition which has, however, since been refuted. The youthful Madonna is seated on a cushioned bench in a small homely room; and behind her hangs a light curtain of reddish grey. She bends tenderly over the Infant Christ, who gazes intently at the spectator with an expression full of feeling and inspiration. This is perhaps the most divine-looking of all Raphael’s Infants. The Bridgewater Madonna, seated on a similar seat in a homely habitation, is closely analogous to the Virgin in this work, but instead of the shelf there is an arched window to the right. The lights in both pictures are subtle and extremely delicate, whilst the shadows are in strongly marked contrast.

In the eighteenth century the Orléans Madonna subsequently returned to France to the house of the well-known collector Crozat, from whence it passed into the Orléans Gallery and obtained thus its distinctive appellation. During the Revolution this entire collection was transported to Brussels, and the Madonna changed hands several times before it finally entered the haven of the Musée Condé.

When the Duc d’Aumale returned to Chantilly after an absence of twenty years, he at once formed as we have seen a plan for erecting a museum upon the ruins of the old Château, with the further intention of presenting the mansion with all its contents to the French nation. Many years, however, elapsed before the building was complete and ready to receive all the treasures which it was destined to hold; but meanwhile the Duke continued to increase the collection by munificent and judicious purchases.

At the Faure Sale in 1873, Delacroix’s dramatic composition of The Two Foscari was acquired; in 1877 there were added the four Tanagra figures which now adorn the case wherein the Minerva is enshrined; and an exquisite example of Italian enamel, representing Apollo guiding the Chariot of the Sun (attributed to Benvenuto Cellini), was bought from M. Cadard for 6,000 francs.

In 1876 a very important acquisition was made in the shape of a collection of French portraits, once in the possession of Gaignières but subsequently belonging to Alexandre Lenoir, from whom it had passed into England and become the property of the then Duke of Sutherland. This collection, which was at Stafford House until the Duc d’Aumale acquired it, consists of no less than 69 painted portraits, 148 drawings in coloured chalk and several pastels. Amongst the most interesting of these portraits are: Francis I (painted about 1515), his sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême, and her husband, Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre; Jeanne d’Albret; Admiral de Coligny, and his brother the Cardinal; Catherine de Medicis, Diane de Poitiers, Charles IX, Henri III, the Duc d’Alençon, and the Duc de Nemours (all attributed to François Clouet); Marguerite de France, and Madame de Lansac (attributed to Corneille de Lyon); Philippe de Clève, Sieur de Ravenstein; Jean de Bugenhagen (attributed to Holbein); Catherine de Bora, the wife of Luther; Charles V; the Count and Countess Hornes; Henri IV (by Pourbus), and an attractive likeness of his daughter Elizabeth, Queen of Spain; Gabrielle d’Estrées au bain; the Duc de Retz; the Duc d’Aumont on horseback; Sully and Charost (by Quesnel); George I; several portraits by Mignard, among them a magnificent likeness of Molière, another of Mazarin, and two pastels representing Colbert and Quinault. From the same collection are the portraits of Pope Benedict XIV by Subleyras and of Marie Antoinette as Hebe by Drouais.

Another portrait which attracts much notice is that of Antoine de Bourgogne, the Grand Bâtard, the second of the nineteen illegitimate sons of Philippe le Bon. This painting was presented to the Duc d’Aumale by the Duke of Sutherland. It is an exquisite work of art which has been variously attributed to Memling, to Roger van der Weyden, and to Ugo van der Goes, but it is to the last-named artist that it can be assigned with greater probability. The Grand Bâtard[21] wears the Order of the Golden Fleece instituted by his father at Bruges in 1430, and appears to be about forty years of age, the period of life when he gained his great victory over the Moors at Ceuta. He was not only a valiant warrior, but also an arduous bibliophile and collector. His Château of La Roche contained many interesting illuminated manuscripts now dispersed, and of these the Froissart at Breslau is amongst the most celebrated. Like all those that belonged to him, it bears his autograph “ob de Bourgogne” “ob” being an abbreviation of the Greek word ὁβαλὁς, which means bâtard.[22]

The drawings of this Sutherland Collection, especially those belonging to the sixteenth century, are less important, many of them appearing to be copies by inferior hands; those, however, of the seventeenth century by Quesnel and Dumoustier are first-rate. Among the portraits in pastel may be noted likenesses of Madame de Montespan, Louis XIII, Gaston d’Orléans, Louis de Haros, and an interesting portrait of Watteau designed by Boucher after an original by Watteau himself.

In 1877 the Duc d’Aumale availed himself of another opportunity of restoring to France a French collection which had been brought to England, namely, that of M. Carmontelle, which comprised no less than 450 coloured sketches for portraits which date from the year 1757 to the year 1775. Carmontelle, as tutor to the Duc de Chartres, had plenty of opportunity during his leisure hours to sketch all the men and women with whom he came in contact, which he did merely for his own amusement, without any expectation of payment. The facility with which he executed these sketches astonished even Grimm, who remarked upon his skill. In about two hours each, with the greatest ease, he reproduced all the most noticeable figures in the life of the period, from the Dauphin and his courtiers, the Princes and Princesses of the House of Bourbon and Orléans, the officers, ladies and gentlemen, ecclesiastics, musicians and actors, down to the domestics, and even the floor-scrubber at Saint-Cloud. These sketches amounted at the time of his death to the number of 700, and in 1807 were bought en bloc by his friend Richard de Ledans, who disposed of a good many of them. When he died in 1816 450 drawings only were left. These were at once bought by Pierre de la Mesangère, editor of Le Journal des Dames et des Modes, and they form an exceedingly valuable record of the fashions at the time of Louis XV.

In 1831 the Carmontelle drawings reappeared in Scotland in the Duff-Gordon-Duff Collection, whence they were acquired by the Duc d’Aumale for the sum of 112,500 francs, to add to other examples of this artist’s work, particularly a portrait of Carmontelle himself, which he already possessed. They are now stored in large portfolios in the Salle Caroline at Chantilly, and, catalogued with comments and notes by the late Anatole Gruyer, afford great pleasure and amusement to those who have leisure to examine them.

The next acquisitions were a number of paintings collected by M. Reiset, who had already, as we have seen above, passed on his drawings to the indefatigable Duke. The price paid for these was 600,000 francs, and they include no less than twenty-five pictures of the Italian School, amongst which we may mention the following: a small panel representing the Death of the Virgin, attributed to Giotto (unfortunately much repainted); The Coronation of the Virgin, by Giovanni del Ponte di San Stefano; an allegorical figure representing Autumn, attributed to Botticelli[23]; an Annunciation by Francia and a Holy Family by Jacopo Palma; several Luinis and two small Filippo Lippis; and an exquisite little Madonna holding the Infant Christ by Bissolo. The Marriage of St. Francis of Assisi to Poverty, by Sassetta (formerly assigned to his pupil Sano di Pietro) is one of the most attractive works by this master. It once formed part of an altarpiece at S. Severino, long since broken up and dispersed. Several smaller panels from the same altarpiece are to be found in the Chalendon Collection in Paris, and one belongs to M. le Comte Martel; whilst the central portion is in the possession of Mr. B. Berenson.[24]

In the painting at Chantilly Sassetta may be seen at the height of his imaginative power.[25] An atmosphere of religious calm breathes over the landscape from which the three figures of Chastity, Humility and Poverty are floating upwards; the latter turning to wave a last friendly greeting to the Saint whom they are leaving on earth. It is full of the naïve sentiment for which this artist is so conspicuous.

Another interesting painting which belonged to the Reiset Collection is the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, formerly assigned to Pollaiuolo, but attributed by Dr. G. Frizzoni to Piero di Cosimo. Simonetta was a young Genoese lady renowned for her beauty, who came to Florence as the wife of a Cattini. Poliziano wrote sonnets upon her charms, and Giuliano dei Medici fell madly in love with her. Among the numerous likenesses of her by Botticelli and others, in the National Gallery, at Berlin, and elsewhere, this one in the Musée Condé seems to be the most lifelike. Reiset bought this portrait in 1841 from the last member of the Vespucci family.

Attention may here be drawn to a fine sea-piece by Everdingen, the master of Ruysdael; to two small portraits of a Husband and Wife of the Van Eyck School; and to a Procession attributed to Dierick Bouts—all excellent examples of the Dutch School.

An extremely interesting picture, now known to be of French origin, came also from the Reiset Gallery, namely, The Virgin as Protector of the Human Race[26]—a work executed in 1452 by Charonton and Vilatte for Jean Cadard and his wife, and of special importance in the history of French painting.

Five large Poussins, two Gaspar Dughets, a portrait of Napoleon by Gerard; and no less than three works by Ingres came also from this same source: namely, the Artist’s own portrait as a youth, a portrait of a Madame Devançay, and the painting of Venus Anadyomene, upon which he is known to have spent much time and thought throughout the last forty years of his life.

Finally, to all these other treasures were added some drawings by Prud’hon. Then in 1882, from the Hamilton Palace Sale interesting portraits by Corneille de Lyon, and a small likeness of Montaigne probably by a late pupil of that master; and at various subsequent London sales drawings were purchased by Botticelli, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Salomon Ruysdael, Dumoustier, Ingres, Van Loo, and Gericault, besides a great number of engravings.

Whilst the Duke was making these important acquisitions he was at the same time gradually rebuilding the old Château of the Condés in order to house them adequately, and it is not to be wondered at that intellectual France took a great interest in this vast artistic enterprise. His Royal Highness was elected a Member of the Institut de France and invited to occupy the chair of M. de Cardaillac at the Académie des Beaux Arts. It was on this occasion that Victor Hugo, whom the Prince had referred to in his address of eulogy upon his predecessor, wrote him the following memorable letter:

It was, however, during the last years of his life that the Duke really made his most important acquisitions. In 1885, for the sum of £3,800, he bought from Mr. Fuller Russell the charming diptych painted in 1466 for Jeanne de France, daughter of Charles VII. This painting was formerly attributed to Memling, but Count Paul Durrieu now assigns it to Zanetto Bugatto of Milan, one of that master’s greatest pupils in Italy.

In the same year Raphael’s picture of the Three Graces was purchased for the sum of £30,000 from the executors of the Earl of Dudley—a panel so small as not to exceed the dimensions of a man’s hand. The youthful Raphael in this composition was clearly inspired by the beautiful antique marble group at Siena; and we may observe how the genius of two great artists in two such diverse epochs can be happily blended together. The Three Graces at Chantilly and The Dream of a Knight at the National Gallery are not far apart and may probably both be dated at about 1500-1503; but around the former picture there seems to hang some unsolved problem. The Duc d’Aumale expresses himself about it in the following terms: “Are these really the Three Graces whom we have here before us? Or was it not rather the intention of Raphael to represent the Three Ages of Womanly Beauty? To the left the virgin with a veil around her slender hips; to the right the woman in her prime wearing a necklace of coral; and in the centre, with her back turned to the spectator, the woman in her full maturity, merely exhibiting her fine profile. Does not this picture imply that Woman at all ages holds in her hand the Empire of the World?”

This little panel, originally in the Borghese Gallery, passed successively into the collections of Reboul, Fabre, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Woodburn, and Lord Dudley whence it finally entered the sanctuary of the Musée Condé.

Another important picture of the Italian School is the cassone panel representing King Ahasuerus and Esther.[28] This was originally painted for the Torrigiani family of Florence and was formerly ascribed to Filippino Lippi; but modern art-criticism assigns it to the suppositious “Amico di Sandro,” who, if he really did paint it, has almost surpassed Filippino in both beauty and grace.

Another panel from the same cassone, representing the Second Appearance of Esther before Ahasuerus, is in the possession of Leopold Goldschmidt at Paris; whilst the two side panels of Mordecai on Horseback and Esther as Queen walking in her Garden are in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna.

One more Italian picture deserves notice. It is a replica of the famous composition which passed some years ago from the collection of Prince Chigi in Rome into that of Mrs. John Gardiner at Boston, U.S.A. It represents the Virgin and the Holy Child attended by an angel who offers the latter roses. This picture has much of the charm of both Botticelli and Filippino but is by neither of them. It is the work of some unknown but unquestionably highly gifted artist.

In spite of these important purchases of Italian pictures the Duc d’Aumale never neglected an opportunity of acquiring French works of art, and he extended his collection as far as possible in that particular direction. So that from M. Destailleur, from the Comte de Fresnes, and from the Baron Seillier he acquired books that had been bound expressly for François I, for Henri II and for Marguerite de Valois. At the Hamilton Palace Sale he purchased for 12,375 francs a Book of Hours of the fourteenth century which had been specially bound for its then owner, François de Guise. In 1892 the sumptuous Psalter of Ingeburge of Denmark, wife of Philippe Auguste, found its way into this ever-increasing collection; and this was quickly followed by the interesting Breviary executed in the fourteenth century for Queen Jeanne d’Evreux.

In 1889 more than 310 French drawings were acquired from Lord Carlisle, including original work by Jean Perréal, by Jean and François Clouet, by Corneille de Lyon and by the Dumoustiers. The artistic, iconographic and historical value of these drawings has been pronounced on all hands to be almost unique; more especially with regard to the portraits of celebrated personages living between the years 1514 and 1560. Francis I with his Queens, his mistresses, his courtiers, and the ladies of his petites bandes; the famous Preux de Marignan, the great Montmorency and the Colignys, Henri II and his numerous sons and daughters; Catherine de Medicis and la belle Diane—all these famous heroes and heroines of history are met together in effigy at Chantilly: a place they all knew so well and enjoyed so much during their lifetime. The question of how these drawings, so highly valued under the Valois régime, were ever allowed to leave France has never been satisfactorily solved. Horace Walpole possessed a similar collection, but it was of much less artistic importance. It was the collection once owned by Mariette and is now apparently in the possession of an English peer.[29] Gaignières also collected French drawings of the same type, but after his death they greatly depreciated in value and passed from the Bibliothèque Royale into the Bodleian Library at Oxford. But the Howard portfolio, the most important of all, and also the Salting Collection were discovered in Florence. It is certain that there is a common link between all of the sets, and similar handwritings are to be found upon the margins of most of them. We must, however, postpone further discussion on this interesting question until a later chapter.

In 1889 the great painting by Meissonier, Les Cuirassiers de 1805, was bought at the Secrétan Sale for the sum of 190,000 francs; and soon after came Détaille’s finest work, Le Colonel Lepic à Eylau: “Haut les Têtes.”

In 1890 Corot’s Concert Champêtre cost the Duke 20,000 francs and proved how fully he appreciated the more recent art-movements in France.

His Royal Highness made his last acquisition in 1891, perhaps the most important of all, and one which certainly procured for him immense satisfaction—namely, forty miniatures by the famous Jean Fouquet from the Book of Hours of Étienne Chevalier. These unique treasures were purchased from Herr Brentano of Frankfurt for the sum of 250,000 francs and will be fully described presently.

The Musée Condé affords the most unique opportunities for the study of French art. The Wallace Collection may be richer in the work of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, but there is nothing in that collection which can compare with the examples of French fifteenth and sixteenth century art enshrined at the Musée Condé; for example, the exquisite miniatures of the Brothers Limbourg and of Jean Fouquet, or the precious pencil portraits by the Valois Court-Painters. It is to these that closer attention will be drawn in the following chapters.

CHAPTER XII

FRENCH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS AT CHANTILLY

THE leading part taken by French Art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was not continued in the same degree during the fourteenth and fifteenth. Nevertheless records have survived which afford sufficient information whence we may conclude that France was at that period not as entirely unproductive as has been hitherto supposed. It is true that, owing to the fact that the wall-decorations in the Hôtel St. Paul, the old Louvre, and the Hôtel de Savoisie in Paris, of the châteaux of Bicêtre and Vaudreuil in Normandy, and of the castles of the Comtesse d’Artois, have been almost entirely destroyed or demolished by fire, siege or climate, native works of art of that period have become extremely rare. Still those few which remain, such as the diptych belonging to the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton,[30] the Parement de Narbonne, now in the Louvre, the wall-paintings in the Cathedral at Cahors and in the Church of Saint-Savin at Poitiers, etc., testify amply to the importance of the work of that period. Moreover, the miniatures of that period have not shared the disastrous vicissitudes of the larger works. Thus the illuminated MSS. preserved at Chantilly offer a special interest and are of an almost unique value in the general history of Art.

By a fortunate chance an Inventory has come down to us, compiled in 1416, immediately after the death of the Duc de Berry, brother of King Charles V of France. This document contains a catalogue of all the art-treasures in his possession; but hardly any names of artists are mentioned except those of Pol Limbourg and his brothers. Among the entries the following is worth quoting: “Plusiers cayers d’une Très Riches Heures qui faisoient Pol et ses frères, très richement historiez et enluminez”—a note which refers without a doubt to the MS. of Les Très Riches Heures now at Chantilly. Another document of no less importance is one drawn up by François Robertet, Secretary to the Duc de Bourbon, which informs us that several of the miniatures in the MS. of Josephus’ Antiquities are by Jehan Fouquet, Court-Painter to Louis XI. Thus it has been possible to identify the authentic work of the Limbourgs and of Fouquet, some of the finest examples of which are to be found in the Musée Condé.

Unfortunately these flashes of light are very rare; and absence of record is no doubt one of the chief reasons why French paintings of this period were so little known and appreciated in France, and why the valuable collection bequeathed by Robert Gaignières to Louis XIV was but little valued by that monarch. Trusting to the advice of the ignorant critics of the time His Majesty reckoned them as of no importance and did not consider the collection worthy of a place in the Louvre; so that eventually, in 1717, it was scattered by public auction under the directions of the painter de Troy.

Thus it happened that, whilst France was acquiring valuable antiques and important examples of the art of the Italian Renaissance, she was unable to estimate or retain the art which had sprung up on her own soil. To cite one example only: Fouquet’s diptych from Melun has been lost to France for ever, one portion of it being at Antwerp, another at Berlin, whilst the beautiful enamelled frame has disappeared altogether.

Fortunately, however, connoisseurs like Reiset and Mariette arose, who bequeathed French fifteenth and sixteenth century pictures to the Louvre; and later still this remarkable legacy from the Duc d’Aumale restored to France some of her own most valuable treasures. By means of these acquisitions this patriotic Prince has constructed a monument to French Art which is as interesting as it is unique.

The Cabinet des Livres at Chantilly, still just as it was when occupied by the Duc d’Aumale, with his chair, his writing-table, his reading-lamp and half-burnt candle, contains no less than fourteen thousand manuscripts of the very highest importance. The most noteworthy amongst these are: the first ten books of St. Augustine’s Cité de Dieu (translated by Raoul de Presles); Aristotle’s Ethics (translated by Nicolas Oresmes); Livy’s Second Decade (translated by Pierre Bersuire); all of which at one time belonged to the Duc de Berry. Then there is the third volume of the Gallic War, a free translation of the Commentaries of Cæsar,[31] on the last page of which is the following inscription: Albertus Pichius, auxilio Godofredi pictoris Batavi faciebat praecipiete Francisco Molinio mense novembris anno quinquimillesimo vigesimo; whence we derive information regarding the date of its completion, the names of the artists who were entrusted with it and even the name of the man who commissioned it on behalf of Francis I.

Most interesting are a selection of the Table Ronde used by Gaston Paris in Vol. XXX of the Histoire littéraire de la France and a copy of Dante’s Inferno with a Commentary by Guido of Pisa. Furthermore a French translation of Cicero’s Rhetorics written in 1282 by Master Jean d’Antioch and commissioned by a monk called Guillaume de Saint-Etienne of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem: a MS. which throws interesting light on still more ancient translations and is ornamented with fine old miniatures; a French translation of Valere Maxime (in two volumes), which belonged to the Cardinal George d’Amboise; a translation of Diodorus Siculus, with a frontispiece representing King Francis and his Court; and an illuminated manuscript, known to have been the Book of Hours of Anne de Montmorency, offer more than ordinary interest. This last belongs to the sixteenth century and contains miniatures in the style of Jean Cousin.

Next comes a Legenda Aurea, which once belonged to Charles V of France and which in its time has travelled back and forth between England and France (as was so often the case with old books and manuscripts); for on the last page we read in an unknown hand:

Other extremely important MSS. acquired by the Duke himself are the MS. de la Coche de Marguerite d’Angoulême and the Psalter of Queen Ingeburge, of which the Duke was particularly proud. It commences with a Calendar, followed by a series of paintings on gold backgrounds representing scenes from the Old and New Testaments, and dates from the thirteenth century. It belonged to Queen Ingeburge, the unhappy and neglected wife of Philippe Auguste and in it are entered the names of her father, Waldemar the Great, King of Denmark, of her mother, Queen Sophia, and of the Comtesse Eleanore de Vermandois, her faithful friend during long years of trial, thus proving unquestionably her ownership of this precious volume. She has, moreover, entered in it the date 1214, the year in which she was recognised as Queen of France. On the last page appears the following entry: “Ce psaultier fut de Saint Loys,” showing that the MS. subsequently came into the possession of St. Louis, King of France, himself. In Charles V’s Inventory, dated 1380, it is described as “mon gros psaultier, nommé le Psaultier St. Loys, très richement enlumyne d’or et d’ancien ymages,” and we learn that in 1428 it was preserved in the Château of Vincennes. From that time, however, it disappeared for nearly two hundred years until it was found in England by Pierre de Bellièvre, who secured it and presented it in 1649 to Henri de Mesmes. The miniatures are similar in style to those found in English MSS. of the thirteenth century; the colours are luminous, black and blue being predominant, and the whole work is painted on a gold ground. The initial letters and the decorative caligraphy show skilful technique and were evidently designed at the period of which Dante speaks as “L’onor di quell’arte ch’alluminare è chiamata in Parisi.”[32] It is very probable that this Psalter of Queen Ingeburge[33] served as the model for many other illuminated manuscripts.

Another noteworthy royal MS. acquired by the Duc d’Aumale which is of special importance is the Breviary of Jeanne d’Evreux. Amid the delicate decorations of the border around the illuminated text may be seen the coats-of-arms of France, Navarre, and Evreux; and it contains no less than one hundred and fourteen miniatures in grisaille upon coloured and gold backgrounds. The Gothic attitudes and graceful figures recall the style of Jean Pucelle, which, dating from the years 1327-1350, had been introduced into Paris before the coming of Northern realism.

Jeanne d’Evreux, wife of Charles IV, was well known as a connoisseur in illuminated books, and this exquisite work of art passed to Charles V, by whom it was kept at Vincennes in a coffer along with the Breviary of Belleville.

The small Book of Hours belonging to M. Maurice de Rothschild (published in facsimile by Count Delisle), the Missal of St. Denis in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Book of Hours designed for Jeanne de France, Queen of Navarre, in the Yates Thomson Collection, form a group of beautiful codices which have rightly been compared with this MS. of Queen Jeanne d’Evreux.

The greatest gem, however, of all these illuminated MSS. is unquestionably the precious volume known as Les Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berry. The Duc d’Aumale himself relates the history of its acquisition in 1855. On his way to visit his mother Queen Marie Amélie, then lying ill at Nervi, he visited the Villa Pallavicini at Pegli, near Genoa—at that time a boarding-school for young ladies—in order to examine a MS. to which his attention had been drawn by Sir Antonio Panizzi, Principal Librarian of the British Museum. Without any hesitation he arranged on the spot to purchase the work of art for a sum of 18,000 francs. On his return to Twickenham (where he was then residing), the Duchess herself carefully unfolded the newly acquired treasure from its “cassetta foderato di velluto” and every connoisseur of note at once hastened to examine the wonderful MS. which the Duke had been so fortunate as to acquire. As early as 1857 Waagen wrote about it with much detail; later Count de Laborde, Anatol Gruyer, and Leopold Delisle followed; and recently, and more exhaustively, Paul Durrieu also. But it was Delisle who made the important discovery that the Très Riches Heures could be identified with the MS. described in the Inventory of the Duc de Berry: “Item une layette plusiers cayers d’une ‘Très Riches Heures’ que faisoient Pol et ses frères, très richement historiez et enluminez.” The same writer also discovered that these leaflets were valued at 500 livres tournois (about 20,000 francs), a very large price for that time, and one which showed the high value in which this manuscript was held even at that date.

The death of the Duc de Berry brought these precious pages, begun under such brilliant auspices, to a sudden standstill; and in consequence of that prince’s debts—which arose chiefly from his expensive artistic tastes—a sale of his property immediately took place. The Duc de Bourbon and the Comte d’Armagnac (the husbands of his two daughters and co-heiresses) were making war upon one another on account of the murder of the Duc d’Orléans by Jean Sans Peur—a war known in history as the War of the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. Amid these disturbances there was scarcely time to think of illuminated MSS.; for which reason the work of Pol de Limbourg and his brothers was suspended, and was not resumed until the year 1454, long after their death—unfortunately by a far inferior hand—that of Jean de Colombe. By that time the volume had come into the possession of Charles of Savoy and his wife Blanche of Monferrat. It is not difficult to explain how this Breviary came into the House of Savoy—a fact which is proved by the armorial bearings and two miniature portraits of Charles—because both husband and wife were descendants in direct line from Bonne de Berry (one of the daughters of the Duc de Berry), who had first been married to a Count of Savoy. In 1501 the MS. passed to Margaret of Austria, wife of Philibert of Savoy, a Royal patroness of the Arts who corresponded with Jean Perréal regarding the tomb of her husband in the church at Brou. By her this MS. was provided with a velvet cover and a silver padlock; and she no doubt took it to Flanders with her after her husband’s death.