DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22424#0273
Letter IV.
MSS. WITH MINIATUEES.
259
the appearance of so great a painter as Jean Fouquet * imme-
diately after the middle of the 15th century. The artists who
executed these pictures were obviously his predecessors. To an
Italian painter, however, and it is well known that the Duke de
Berry employed several, I am disposed to attribute numerous little
heads in initials, of very noble forms and expression, and tender
execution—for instance, one in leaf 27a. As regards the sup-
posed pictures by the hand of a later master, Nicolas Robert,
I content myself with observing that the number of the same, in
pictures occupying a whole page, in vignettes, and in initials, is
very considerable. As we have seen already in the Calendar,
they occur in the course of the MS. alternately with the earlier
pictures. Finally I may remark that this relic is in wonderful
preservation.
A manuscript of the ' Miroir Historiale de Gille Gracien,' a
large folio in two columns, dated 1463, and written in a large and
full minuscule letter. This contains a considerable number of
miniatures by an artist of tolerable skill, showing in the heads, as
well as in the whole form of art, that style which had nourished
both in France and in the Netherlands from about 1360, and
proving that in some instances that style was still practised after
the realistic tendency of art had obtained in France in the person
of Jean Fouquet, and had been fully developed in the Netherlands
by the scholars of Hubert van Eyck.
Next to these I was most attracted by the third part of Julius
Caesar's Commentaries, the first part of which I had already seen
in 1835, in the library of the British Museum, and critically noticed
in the first edition of this work. The part in the Duke d'Aumale's
possession contains miniatures by Godefroy, all inscribed with the
letter G and 15'20, and on leaf 52 with the name of the master full
length. These miniatures differ from those in the first part, inas-
much as the artist has here endeavoured to imitate the German
School, and namely Albert Durer.t
Another MS., of which I no longer remember the contents,
displays pretty miniatures of the school of Jean Fouquet, and very
beautiful initials.
* See 'Kunstwerke und Kunstlerin Paris,' p. 371 and further.
t The second part of this work is in the Library at Paris. Count Delaborde, in
his ' Kenaissance des Arts a la Cour de Prance,' vol. i. p. 899, was the first, as far as
I am aware, to notice this work. I have never seen it myself.
s 2
MSS. WITH MINIATUEES.
259
the appearance of so great a painter as Jean Fouquet * imme-
diately after the middle of the 15th century. The artists who
executed these pictures were obviously his predecessors. To an
Italian painter, however, and it is well known that the Duke de
Berry employed several, I am disposed to attribute numerous little
heads in initials, of very noble forms and expression, and tender
execution—for instance, one in leaf 27a. As regards the sup-
posed pictures by the hand of a later master, Nicolas Robert,
I content myself with observing that the number of the same, in
pictures occupying a whole page, in vignettes, and in initials, is
very considerable. As we have seen already in the Calendar,
they occur in the course of the MS. alternately with the earlier
pictures. Finally I may remark that this relic is in wonderful
preservation.
A manuscript of the ' Miroir Historiale de Gille Gracien,' a
large folio in two columns, dated 1463, and written in a large and
full minuscule letter. This contains a considerable number of
miniatures by an artist of tolerable skill, showing in the heads, as
well as in the whole form of art, that style which had nourished
both in France and in the Netherlands from about 1360, and
proving that in some instances that style was still practised after
the realistic tendency of art had obtained in France in the person
of Jean Fouquet, and had been fully developed in the Netherlands
by the scholars of Hubert van Eyck.
Next to these I was most attracted by the third part of Julius
Caesar's Commentaries, the first part of which I had already seen
in 1835, in the library of the British Museum, and critically noticed
in the first edition of this work. The part in the Duke d'Aumale's
possession contains miniatures by Godefroy, all inscribed with the
letter G and 15'20, and on leaf 52 with the name of the master full
length. These miniatures differ from those in the first part, inas-
much as the artist has here endeavoured to imitate the German
School, and namely Albert Durer.t
Another MS., of which I no longer remember the contents,
displays pretty miniatures of the school of Jean Fouquet, and very
beautiful initials.
* See 'Kunstwerke und Kunstlerin Paris,' p. 371 and further.
t The second part of this work is in the Library at Paris. Count Delaborde, in
his ' Kenaissance des Arts a la Cour de Prance,' vol. i. p. 899, was the first, as far as
I am aware, to notice this work. I have never seen it myself.
s 2