Comte Paul Durrieu identifies the Très Riches Heures with a MS. mentioned also in an Inventory of 1523 as “une grande heure escripte à la main,” whereby it can be explained how the Grimani Breviary,[34] executed about the end of the sixteenth century, and other Flemish MSS. have obviously taken this famous Codex as a model; and even in some points copied it very closely.

When Margaret of Austria died in 1530 the volume passed into the hands of one of her executors, Jean Buffant, Treasurer to the Emperor Charles V; and from that time there occurs a gap which even Paul Durrieu has so far been unable to fill. The present binding of red morocco leather belongs to the eighteenth century and bears the coat-of-arms of the Spinola family, which points strongly to the probability that the volume also once belonged to the celebrated General Spinola, who captured the town of Breda—an historical event immortalised by Velasquez. From the Spinolas it came into the family of the Sèvres, a fact proved by another coat-of-arms amongst the illuminations; and from a member of that family it was acquired by the Duc d’Aumale, by whom it was deposited at Chantilly.

From this amazing list of MSS. we may see that nearly all the important books and manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are represented at Chantilly. Some portions of the collection go back to the old Montmorency and Condé acquisitions; whilst the Duc d’Aumale himself has described the origin and vicissitudes of the articles gathered in by himself in his admirable work The Philobiblon Miscellanies, which will always remain the best guide to the Cabinet des Livres at Chantilly.

CHAPTER XIII

LES TRÈS RICHES HEURES DU DUC DE BERRY

THE Duc de Berry was one of those enlightened and enthusiastic patrons of Art who, by giving numerous commissions to the artists of his time created important centres of Art in Paris and Dijon. It was for him that Jaquemart de Hesdin and his school executed the famous Très Belles Heures (now dispersed), fragments of which are to be found in the Louvre: in the collections of Baron Adolph de Rothschild in Paris; and of Prince Trivulzio at Milan: whilst the largest and most interesting portion, known as the Hours of Turin, once treasured in the Royal Library of that city, perished in a disastrous fire in 1904.[35]

It was likewise for the Duc de Berry that the nephews of Malouel, Pol de Limbourg and his brothers, painted these famous Très Riches Heures now at Chantilly. And that the Duke very greatly admired the work of these artists is proved by entries in old Inventories, wherein we find that he showered valuable presents upon them—pieces of gold (coins), rings, etc. He moreover presented Pol the eldest and most eminent of the brothers with a mansion at Bourges, where the artist and his wife resided until his death.

The Duc de Berry was also one of those collectors whose taste rose above that of his time; and who, furthermore, proved to be one of the leading spirits in the development of the Art of that period. Besides famous painters he also employed the celebrated architect Guy de Damartin to build and restore his castles. The discovery of a MS. containing architectural sketches of various fortresses (probably drawn by the hand of this architect himself) proves that the Duke had a fancy to have his various castles introduced with the greatest precision into the backgrounds of the miniatures executed for him in this MS. No doubt it was by his express wish that the landscape details in the Calendar of this famous Book of Hours were copied direct from nature and not treated merely conventionally as hitherto.

This remarkable work marks an important epoch in the history of Primitive French Art, inasmuch as its influence extended not only over France, but also to Italy, Flanders, and the School of Cologne. It commences with a Calendar delightfully decorated and illustrating minor passing events in the life of the period, with portraits of the Duke himself, his family, his friends and other personages.

The Month of January[36] begins by showing us a banqueting scene. The Duc de Berry, attired in a richly brocaded mantle and a fur cap, is seated before a screen in conversation with a church dignitary—the only one among the company besides himself who is seated. Three elegantly dressed pages are busy serving a meal, whilst another is playing with some pet dogs; puppies being engaged in eating out of a plate upon the table. Two cup-bearers stand ready with wine and in a prominent position upon the board stands a nef. This beautiful example of the goldsmith’s art was known as the Salière du Pavillon and its design is attributed to Pol Limbourg himself.[37] In the background may be seen the Ducal guards and one of his castles. The face of the Duke appears to be an excellent likeness if we compare it with a Holbein drawing at the Bâle Museum, which is said to have been copied from a statue of this prince at Bourges. Above this miniature, in a blue and gold lunette, appears the Chariot of the Sun drawn by winged horses—a design repeated several times in subsequent miniatures.

The Month of February exhibits a bright wintry landscape, where a silent village[38] with a church tower lies beneath a mantle of white. The feeling of a cold wintry day is well expressed by the heaped-up masses of snow, against which the wool of sheep cowering in their folds is sharply contrasted. We can almost see the shivers of the man to the right, with his mantle drawn close around him. A haystack, bee-hives, birds picking up crumbs, a peasant girl warming her feet at an open fire, are so delightfully realistic, so free from convention, that we feel that the artist has here given free rein to his imagination.

Then follows March: a peasant is ploughing, whilst behind rises the fortress of Lusignan, the cradle of the Plantagenets. The sky is blue and cloudless, and above one of the towers is a flying dragon, intended to symbolise the fair Melusine. A close copy of this miniature is in the Grimani Breviary.[39]

In the Month of April,[40] with the Castle of Dourdan on the River Orge we find a scene characteristic of the period. An exchange of presents—presumably an engagement—is in process between a noble knight and a richly attired lady. The knight is the same personage who is represented in attendance upon the Duke in the banquet scene. Another pair of personages look on with sympathetic interest, whilst two young ladies gather flowers.

The fifth miniature (which the Duc d’Aumale designates as La Reine de Mai)[41] is one of the most charming of the series, for May Day was at that time an occasion of much festivity at the Court of France. A gay cavalcade is passing through a wood, headed apparently by a Prince of the Blood—perhaps even the Sovereign himself—and amid those in attendance the knight of the last picture again appears, his head bound with a chaplet of bay-leaves. He is turning back to gaze at his bride, who rides beside him on a white horse. She wears the same ornaments as in the previous picture, and it is by these that we can identify her. In the background, silhouetted against the horizon, is the Castle of Riom, pleasantly situated in its park and gardens. This picture displays with much effect the gaiety of the persons represented, who all seem to be engaged in animated converse. Pol de Limbourg evidently approaches in this picture his highest capabilities; and becomes more and more independent of convention.

In the Month of June[42] the Palais de Justice of Charles V with the Sainte-Chapelle are visible in the rear. The reapers shown in this composition and the two graceful peasant girls busy amid the fresh-cut grass have aroused great enthusiasm amongst modern connoisseurs; and we involuntarily recall the paintings of François Millet and the Barbizon School—a school which, after nearly four centuries, has revived the art of realistic landscape-painting in France.

In the Month of July[43] the lofty towers of the Castle of Poitiers, which not long before had been restored by the Duc de Berry, appear in the background. And just as the winter landscape of the Month of February arouses the impression of winter’s snow and ice, so this brilliant composition, in which the sunshine blazes upon the cornfields, makes one dream of the burning days of summer. The sheep, in February huddled together in their pens, are now grazing in a meadow, whilst a young peasant woman is busy plying her shears upon their fleecy coats and a youth watches her with marked interest.

The Month of August[44] presents a hawking party. Two cavaliers mounted on richly appointed steeds, their ladies mounted on pillions behind them, are carrying hawks. One lady is, however, courageous enough to manage her own palfrey, and holds a hawk upon her left wrist. Behind, labourers are pursuing their toil and bathers are sporting in a stream. At the back rises the Château d’Estampes which the Duc de Berry had recently bought from his brother Louis of Anjou. The landscape is here treated with admirable freedom. The artist has painted what he saw, just as it really was, and the outlines of the château are represented with remarkable fidelity.

The Castle of Saumur appears in the September miniature, where a vintage is proceeding with life and vigour.

October[45] brings with it ploughing, whilst a man scatters seed only to be devoured at once by flights of hungry birds. In the rear various groups of figures parade up and down upon a quay before the old Palace of the Louvre.

The Month of November is a disappointment. It is conjectured that the artist intended to present the Tour de Nesle, the Duke’s stately town-residence, but that through his sudden death the page was left unpainted until a century later, when Jean de Colombe undertook to fill it in. It represents a swineherd with his pigs who are grubbing for acorns; but the landscape is only a feeble attempt to imitate the earlier work. The lunette, however, was evidently painted by the Limbourgs.

In December[46]—the last of the series—a hunting-scene is presented, with a pack of hounds careering through a spacious park, in the background of which is the Keep of Vincennes, the Duke’s birthplace. This miniature, which somewhat differs in conception from the earlier ones, was probably executed by one of the brothers of Pol Limbourg.

The fascinating landscapes and the graceful architecture of these Calendar Months excite our keenest admiration; for we must remember that at this early date (1415) landscape-painting had hitherto been treated as mere decoration, without any attempt at reality or probability.[47] Their special charm lies very largely in their truthfulness to nature, and the Duc de Berry himself added still further to this element when he insisted upon the introduction of accurate representations of his own castles and their surroundings.

Immediately after the Months we come upon a strange miniature, which, since it also displays the escutcheon of the Duc de Berry, may be assigned to the years 1415-16 and is therefore presumably the work of the Limbourgs. Two nude figures, classical in conception, are presented propped back to back against one another. As in the case of the statue found at Porto d’Anzio, doubt has recently arisen with regard to their sex.[48]

It has been suggested that these two figures were inspired by the Three Graces of Siena; that they are not meant to represent the Dioscuri, as had been hitherto supposed; but that they are two tall slender women such as we find in early Renaissance Art inspired by Greek originals. Their tresses are arranged in the characteristic Greek knot and their slender bodies exhibit the Astrological and Horoscopical connection between the various members of the human organism and the Signs of the Zodiac. We do not find amongst the illustrations of the Middle Ages anything analogous to this curious painting, so that it may be reckoned amongst the many entirely original ideas peculiar to this interesting Codex.

This curious design is followed by small but exquisite miniatures of the Four Evangelists and of the Tiburtine Sybil prophesying to Augustus. Our attent ion is then drawn to a large design representing the Terrestrial Paradise. Four different scenes are shown on the same plane: Eve receives the apple from the Serpent; she offers it to Adam; the Almighty interrogating the offenders; and their expulsion from Paradise through a Gothic gateway by a stern-looking angel with scarlet wings. This miniature, out of the entire number of not less than 206, is the only one which exhibits a marked Flemish influence and reminds us of the fact that the Limbourgs were nephews and pupils of Malouel, Court-Painter to the Duke of Burgundy. All the other miniatures in this Codex which can be assigned to these artists are pre-eminently French in feeling and sensitiveness, showing only occasionally a trace of the influence of Simone Martini: as, for example, Christ bearing His Cross.

The scenes from the Life of Christ commence after traditional fashion with the Annunciation and end with the Crucifixion. The Annunciation is perhaps one of the most attractive of the series. It no longer expresses merely Mediæval symbol but seems rather to simply represent a story; so that we feel that we are already on the threshold of the Renaissance. The Virgin kneels before a fald-stool in a Gothic chapel, whilst the Holy Dove hovers above her head. Smiling with gentle content, she welcomes the salutation of the Archangel—a handsome youth who bears in his hand a branch of lilies. Tastefully grouped around the central composition are angels singing and playing on musical instruments, and the whole is executed in most vivid colours. The armorial bearings of the Duke, a fleur-de-lys displayed between a bear and a swan, have given rise to the canting word Oursine (ours-cigne), which is said to have been the name of the Duke’s favourite mistress. They occur frequently in this MS.

The Adoration of the Infant Saviour, with choirs of rejoicing Angels around the roof of the stable and Joseph—an Oriental-looking personage with a long beard—in deep contemplation, is a representation full of novelty and charm. A shepherd, followed by his flock, draws near to gaze in awe upon the Divine Babe.

On the next page a number of shepherds are pointing to a choir of angels who are singing and making melody in the air, whilst in the distance rises a majestic Gothic cathedral, probably intended to represent the Temple at Jerusalem. In the foreground is one of those conventional hillocks so often met with in old mosaics; but the fountain of running water which rises upon it and from which the sheep are drinking is realistically conceived. It is interesting, therefore, to note the admixture of symbolic tradition with realistic feeling.

The Procession of the Magi, again, is an example of the Limbourgs’ facility in applying new forms to conventional conceptions; and it is worth observing how anxious they evidently were to study the special wishes of their patron the Duke. We learn from the Inventory of this Prince that he was an ardent collector of medals, and that he had bought from a Florentine dealer a medal of the Emperor Constantine. The figure of the most prominent of these three Magi on the left of the scene appears to have been copied from this very medal.[49] In the background may be noticed the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Sainte Chapelle. Again two bears are introduced in allusion to the Ducal device. In the centre of the picture is a tabernacle of pure French Gothic style adorned with figures of prophets and saints. These tabernacles were used in the fourteenth century (the Duc d’Aumale observes), as halting-places between Paris and Saint-Denis and were called Montjoies.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels[50] which comes next is one of the loveliest pages of the series. God the Father, surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim, is enthroned above the golden rays of the Sun. From amongst the ranks of the Angels—who are seated around in a semicircle—the rebels are being cast headlong to Earth. As Lucifer in his fall strikes his handsome head and diadem upon the ground fire bursts from him, producing a marvellous colour-effect of gold, blue and green.

Although this composition is otherwise entirely symbolical, a body of French soldiers clad in armour of that period, with long staves, are introduced striking down the angels as they fall from above. This wonderful little design, although not more than 10 inches wide, is so full of action that it has been compared to the Signorelli frescoes at Orvieto; and this not without reason, for these miniaturists have, even on so tiny a scale, produced very much the same forcible effect.

In direct contrast to this awe-inspiring composition is The Coronation of the Virgin[51] shown here with a fine combination of grandeur and elegance in style. Our Lady’s mantle is rainbow-hued and her dress of pure white is powdered with golden fleur-de-lys. Angels bearing her crown descend from above, whilst Our Lord Himself raises His hands in blessing. On the right are the Apostles and a group of female Saints, one of whom is said to be a portrait of Oursine herself. On the left is a bishop attended by monks. This miniature seems to be a prototype of a painting by Enguerrand Charonton, executed about half a century later and now at Villeneuve les Avignon.

The Temptation of Our Lord deserves somewhat special attention. The scene is represented as taking place upon a conventional mountain-top; and Satan is pointing to a castle with three towers: none other than the Duke’s celebrated Castle of Mehun-sur-Yèvre,[52] described by Froissart as the most beautiful place on earth.

In the Crucifixion, in accordance with the Biblical text, the artists have endeavoured to represent eclipses of the Sun and of the Moon, thus creating for the first time, as early as 1415, that chiaroscuro which later on was so much admired when employed by Rembrandt and Correggio.

The Miracle of the Loaves, within its graceful frame, is also extremely interesting; and not less noteworthy is a Plan of Rome,[53] in which may be observed the old basilica of St. Peter, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Lateran, the Colosseum and the Capitol, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the aqueducts, etc. Nothing is to be seen of the Forum, for at that time no excavations had yet been made.

In conclusion we must mention the exquisite miniature representing Mont St. Michel, with the dragon and St. Michael fighting in the air, a lake and sailing-boats below, and the effigy of the fair Oursine enshrined in the letter B.

Attempts have been made from time to time to trace throughout these beautiful pages the different hands of the three brothers, but no definite conclusion has been arrived at. It is, however, certain that Pol, the greatest of the three, was the leading spirit, and that he was the sole author of the Calendar Months, except that of November, which, as has already been mentioned, was completed seventy years later by Jean Colombe. In this design, and likewise in that part of the book executed by this latter artist, the originality which fascinates us so much in the work of the Limbourgs suddenly vanishes and we find ourselves contemplating mediocrity. In the Pietà (one of Jean Colombe’s miniatures) kneeling figures of the Duke and Duchess of Savoy are introduced. We cannot help wondering what different results might have been achieved had Duke Charles of Savoy, on inheriting the Très Riches Heures, employed Bourdichon or Perréal to complete them—or perhaps Simon Marmion of Valenciennes, who at that very time was painting his celebrated altarpiece for St. Bertin. Unfortunately this prince was not a connoisseur like his august relative the Duc de Berry, and he was unable in consequence to distinguish great art from lesser achievements.

CHAPTER XIV

JEAN FOUQUET OF TOURS

IT is reasonable to inquire with some misgiving whether the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry[54], so far surpassing all other artistic creations of its period, are the only record of the labours of Pol de Limbourg and his brothers which has come down to us. This would seem to be almost the case, if we except the Belles Heures de Jean de Berry (now in the possession of Baron Edmond de Rothschild,) which was the livre de chevet of the Duke and is far smaller in dimensions than the Très Riches Heures.

We can trace in the Bible Moralisée (MS. Français 166 Bibl. Nat.) miniatures strongly recalling the style of the Limbourgs, and if we proceed to compare some of its later pages, supposed to have been the work of the young Fouquet, with similar subjects as in the Chantilly Codex a distinct resemblance can be observed. For instance a representation of Paradise in the Bible Moralisée closely resembles the Limbourgs’ treatment of the same subject in the Très Riches Heures. A few pages farther on the same scene appears, attributed once more and not without reason to Fouquet—probably an early work—which shows the decided influence of his predecessors and tends to suggest that Jean Fouquet of Tours must have been a follower of Pol de Limbourg. At any rate his taste for landscape-painting is already in evidence here, and from the first he appears to have clearly grasped the fact that his predecessors’ greatness lay very largely in this branch of the art of painting, so that he specially laid himself out to make it his own also. The banks of the Loire and the country surrounding his native town of Tours were his favourite subjects, and his treatment of these provoked the fervent admiration of his Italian friend Florio.

Fouquet was born in 1415, and was already famous when Louis XI ascended the Throne of France, and made him his Court-Painter. He was, moreover, well known in Italy before 1443; for he was commissioned whilst in Rome to paint a portrait of Pope Eugenius IV which is known to have been long preserved in the Sacristy of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but which has only come down to us in a mediocre engraving. Filarete in his Treatise on Architecture, dedicated to Francesco Sforza, speaks of Fouquet as famous for portraits from life, and mentions this very portrait of the Pope, together with those of two members of his family. His name was still remembered in Italy in the sixteenth century (he died before 1480), for Vasari mentions him as Giovanni Fochet assai lodato pitor. And Jean de Maire of Belgium, who lived at the Court of that highly cultured patroness of the Arts, Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, recalls Fouquet with highest commendation. Indeed this princess, according to an Inventory of 1516, seems to have owned a small Madonna painted by this master: “Un petit tableau de Notre Dame bien vieux de la main de Fouquet ayant etuy et couverture.”

We know that Fouquet painted the portraits of Charles VII and of Juvenal des Ursins in the Louvre, and also a recently acquired portrait of a Man with a Glass of Wine. The life-sized portraits of Etienne Chevalier attended by his Patron Saint at Berlin and the powerful likeness of an Unknown Personage in the Lichtenstein Gallery are by his hand. But although he won great fame as a portrait-painter during his lifetime it is upon his achievements as a worker in miniature that his highest reputation is based.

A very large number of the collections of miniatures have fortunately been spared to us, and they have come down to us in almost perfect condition. The most important may be enumerated as follows: the Statutes of the Order of St. Michael; the Boccaccio at Munich; the Book of Hours painted for Etienne Chevalier; the Chronique de France in the Bibliothèque Nationale; some MSS. now in the possession of Mr. Yates Thomson; and, finest of all, the Antiquitates Judæorum of Josephus. In the Statutes of the Order of St. Michael (MS. 19819 Bibl. Nat.) Louis XI, as Founder of the Order, is portrayed surrounded by his thirty-six Knights. A similar miniature, but of somewhat greater dimensions, forms the frontispiece of the Boccaccio, which was executed for the Controleur Laurens Gyrart and is now in the Public Library at Munich. Count Paul Durrieu believes—and not without reason—that all the miniatures in this Codex are by Fouquet himself. On the frontispiece, a leaf not more than 20 inches square, Charles VII is depicted surrounded by about 150 dignitaries—judges, magistrates, etc.—passing judgment on Duc Jean d’Alençon. The scene is laid at the Castle of St. George in Vendôme, and amongst those present is Etienne Chevalier and the artist himself.[55] Most realistically conceived are the crowd of onlookers, some of whom, pushing forward, are being vigorously repressed by the guards. The Chronique de France (MS. Français 6465 Bibl. Nat.), in which fifty-five illustrations record events in the Life of Philippe Augustus, one of them showing the Coronation of Charlemagne in the old Basilica of St. Peter at Rome, is another work by Fouquet which is full of points of interest. His illustrations to the French translation of the Antiquitates Judæorum of Josephus—now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris—are usually reckoned as his chef d’œuvre. The Duc de Berry had, in the first instance, commissioned André Beauneveu to execute this MS., but presently it came, by way of inheritance, into the hands of Jacques d’Armagnac, Duc de Nemours, who engaged Fouquet to complete the unfinished work. A note in the first volume of this MS. by François Robertet, secretary to Pierre de Beaujeu, Duc de Bourbon, records that the first three miniatures in that volume were by the Duc de Berry’s artists, and the rest by Louis XI’s “good painter and illuminator—Jean Fouquet of Tours.” It is by this note that we are enabled to identify Fouquet’s work. Subsequently the Codex became the property of Catherine, daughter of the murdered Duc de Nemours, who on her marriage to the Duc de Bourbon brought the treasure to the Court of Moulins. When, a century later, the last Duc de Bourbon, the famous Constable, was killed at the Sack of Rome, since he had no heirs and was an exile and fugitive from France, all his property, including this Codex, was confiscated and passed to the Crown. In course of time the second volume became separated from the first, and having strayed to England, eventually found its way into the Library of Colonel Townley, whence it was sold in 1814. At that time it still contained thirteen miniatures. It was not, however, until 1905 that it reappeared once more at a sale at Sotheby’s when it contained but one miniature![56] Here it was secured by Mr. Yates Thomson, who recognised its author. Two years later Mr. Warner, Librarian of the Royal Library at Windsor, identified ten illuminated miniatures, then in the possession of King Edward VII, as the work of Fouquet and furthermore as belonging to the very MS. acquired by Mr. Yates Thomson. His Majesty graciously consented to unite his precious fragments with those of Mr. Yates Thomson, and the two owners agreed to present the whole work to President Fallières. Thus the two volumes were once more reunited after a separation of many centuries; but with two sheets still missing. The illuminations harmonise in every respect throughout, except that the designs in Volume I are somewhat superior to those in Volume II. Amongst them one representing the Children of Israel led into Captivity by King Shalmaneser is most interesting and exhibits Fouquet at the zenith of his powers. We may specially notice the exquisitely beautiful landscape and the horses, which recall the art of Pisanello. Another scene labelled Clementia shows the Return from the Captivity; and here we may observe a curious blending of classic architecture with the French domestic style of the painter’s own day. This Codex of Fouquet’s recalls the Belles Heures of Ailly mentioned above, which is considered to be an early work of the Brothers Limbourg (i.e. circa 1403-13).

But of all the MSS. illuminated by this artist the one which must most particularly attract our attention is the Book of Hours executed for Etienne Chevalier, the greater part of which is now preserved at Chantilly. Almost all these miniatures are reminiscent of impressions received by Fouquet during residence in Florence and Rome. They were apparently executed during the years 1453 and 1460, soon after his return from Italy and immediately after the completion of the celebrated diptych of Etienne Chevalier and his Patron Saint and the Madonna and Child commissioned by this same Chevalier in 1453 for the Cathedral at Melun in memory of his wife Catherine Buti. One portion of this diptych (the Madonna and Child) is now, as mentioned above, in the Antwerp Museum, whilst the other has found its way into the Kaiser Friedrich Collection at Berlin. The miniatures at Chantilly, forty in number, represent, if not the greatest, at least the most fascinating period of the master’s artistic career. Like the MS. of the Antiquitates Judæorum they also suffered many vicissitudes before finally entering the haven of the Musée Condé. Nicolas, Baron of Navarre and Bearn, a descendant of Etienne Chevalier, in the year 1630, when at the point of death entreated his nephew, to whom he bequeathed his manuscripts, to preserve and augment them “en faveur des gens doctes.” Howbeit that same nephew sold not only the Boccaccio to Munich, but also his ancestor Etienne Chevalier’s Book of Hours. Whilst the former remained intact the latter was mutilated by a dealer, who separated the text from the miniatures in order to sell them individually. It is interesting to note here that Gaignière in his Receuils had copies made of the portraits of Etienne Chevalier and of Charles VII from this MS. and attached to them explanatory notes, as follows: “Charles VII copié après une miniature dans une prière d’heures faite pour Etienne Chevalier, trésorier general de France sous ce Prince”; and again, “Copie d’après une miniature dans un livre d’heures qu’il avait fait faire.”

We may therefore gather from these notes that as late as the seventeenth century the illustrations in this Book of Hours had not been divided from the text. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, the portraits were again reproduced by Montfaucon; but this time they were not copied from the originals, proving that the learned Benedictine writer was then unable to discover their existence. Eventually in 1805 forty of these treasures were discovered at Bâle and bought by George Brentano la Roche of Frankfurt, whence in 1891 they passed to the Duc d’Aumale. Besides these forty, four more pages have been identified as belonging to this same book, as follows: one in the British Museum, which represents David kneeling in prayer amid a beautiful landscape; a Mariensippe (Genealogy of the Blessed Virgin) in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; a fragment in the Louvre representing St. Margaret with a landscape background; and yet one more, St. Martin dividing his mantle, in the Conches Collection.

The forty miniatures at Chantilly are hung upon the walls of the Santuario—so called by the Duc d’Aumale because it sheltered his greatest treasures—i.e. the forty Fouquets, Raphael’s famous Graces, the beautiful painting of Esther before Ahasuerus and the Madonna of the Maison d’Orléans.

The miniature representing Etienne Chevalier with his Patron St. Stephen[57] was intended as a frontispiece for this beautiful book. The powerful Lord High Treasurer of France is represented humbly kneeling, his eyes fixed steadily upon the Divine Mother, who, crowned and seated beneath a Gothic canopy, holds upon her lap the Holy Babe.[58] To the left angels are singing and playing upon musical instruments, whilst a band of children clad in white timidly adore their Infant Saviour. The architecture in the rear of the composition is of special interest, for Gothic niches enshrining figures of the Prophets are intermingled with panels in the style of the Italian Renaissance and Corinthian columns after the manner of Brunelleschi and Michelozzo. A rich display of gold in this miniature gives to it a strongly symbolic character, and may be likened to the dying rays of the sun of Mediæval Art, to which the artist desired to be not wholly indifferent. These exquisite designs clearly exhibit the genius of an artist who had been profoundly impressed by a sojourn in Italy, who had greatly profited thereby and who, by assimilating into his own individuality the fruit of his studies abroad, became a pioneer of pictorial art in his native land. The likeness of the donor himself is especially attractive, for it appears to have been taken direct from life, and, in spite of its smaller dimensions, is superior to the life-size portrait of the same person now at Berlin. It is this smaller presentation that Gaignières has copied in his Receuils.