Jean Fouquet

Jean Fouquet , c.1420-c.1480, French painter and illuminator. He was summoned to Rome in the 1440s to paint the portrait (now lost) of Pope Eugenius IV. His work subsequently revealed the influence of contemporary Italian artists, particularly of Fra Angelico. Fouquet's style is marked by a delicacy of line combined with an amplitude of volume in his portrayal of the human figure. He was court painter to Charles VII and Louis XI and a protégé of Agnès Sorel and Étienne Chevalier, treasurer to Charles VII. His best-known paintings include a diptych, one wing of which represents Agnès Sorel as the Virgin (Antwerp) and the other a kneeling figure of Étienne Chevalier, and his portraits of Charles VII and of the chancellor Guillaume Juvénal (both: Louvre). He is also famous for his illuminations in the Book of Hours for Chevalier (Chantilly) and those for the French translations of Boccaccio and of Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews (Bibliothèque nationale).

Bibliography: See studies by T. Cox (1931) and P. Wescher (tr. 1949).

Fouquet, Jean (1420–80) French court painter. His work is monumental and sculptural, with figures modelled in broad planes. Notable works include a portrait of Charles VII (c.1447), Books of Hours (1450–60), and the Pietá at Nouans.