Jean Duvet

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Duvet, Jean (b ?Dijon, c.1485; d ?Langres, 1561/70). French engraver and goldsmith, sometimes called the Master of the Unicorn from his series of engravings (probably from the 1540s) on the medieval theme of the hunting of the unicorn. Little is known of his life; he lived mainly in Langres and Dijon, but the Renaissance influence in his early work strongly suggests that he spent some time in Italy. His most famous work, a set of 24 engravings illustrating the Apocalypse, published at Lyons in 1561, is, however, completely different in style. The engravings borrow many features from Dürer's famous series on the same subject, but they are a world apart in spirit, for Duvet treats the subject with a visionary intensity and expressive freedom that anticipate William Blake (who may well have known Duvet's prints). His work reflects the disturbed religious conditions that prevailed in Langres and is in complete contrast to the mannered elegance of the School of Fontainebleau, then the dominant force in French art.

Duvet, Jean (c.1485–1561/70). French engraver and goldsmith, sometimes called the Master of the Unicorn from his series of engravings (probably from the 1540s) on the medieval theme of the hunting of the unicorn. Little is known of his life; he lived mainly in Langres and Dijon, but the Renaissance influence in his early work strongly suggests that he spent some time in Italy. His most famous work, a set of 24 engravings of the Apocalypse, published at Lyons in 1561, is, however, completely different in style. The engravings borrow many features from Dürer's famous woodcuts of the Apocalypse (1498), but they are a world apart in spirit, for Duvet treats the subject with a visionary intensity and expressive freedom that anticipate William Blake (who may well have known Duvet's prints). His work reflects the disturbed religious conditions that prevailed in Langres and is in complete contrast to the mannered elegance of the School of Fontainebleau, then the dominant force in French art.