Quarton (or Charonton), Enguerrand

Quarton (or Charonton), Enguerrand (d. 1466?). French painter, active in Provence. His career is unusually well documented for a provincial artist of his date; he worked in Aix, Arles, and Avignon, and there are various records of him dating from 1444 to 1466, in which year he perhaps died in an outbreak of the plague in Provence. However, there are only two extant works that are certainly by him: the Virgin of Mercy (1452) in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, painted in collaboration with an obscure artist called Pierre Villatte, and the Coronation of the Virgin (1454) in the Musée Municipal at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. They are highly impressive works, uniting Flemish and Italian influence whilst having something of the monumental character of the sculpture of Quarton's region. Indeed, they show Quarton to have been a painter of such commanding stature that there is an increasing tendency to attribute to him the celebrated Avignon Pietà (c.1460, Louvre, Paris), the greatest French painting of the period (see avignon, school of). Several illuminated manuscripts have also been attributed to Quarton.