Master of Jouvenel des Ursins
( fl c. 1447-60). French illuminator. He is named after Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins, Chancellor of France from 1447 to 1472 and patron of a copy of Giovanni Colonna's compilation, the Mare historiarum (1447-55; Paris, Bib. N., MS. lat. 4915). This impressive manuscript contains significant work by the Jouvenel Master, but the differing styles of its illustrations indicate that a number of other artists were also involved. The manuscript has 730 miniatures, including 7 large-format paintings marking the beginning of each book, and represents one of the most ambitious programmes for the illustration of a history text ever undertaken at that time. The variety of artists at work was not recognized until relatively late, first by Schaefer and then more systematically by Konig (1982), who distinguished as many as 11 different hands. The illuminators' methods of working manifestly developed as the project progressed: the first half of the manuscript reveals a close collaboration, with several painters working with the greatest care within a single gathering, but the last part was illustrated fairly hastily by a single illuminator from folio 290 onwards. No illustrated manuscript of the same text seems to have served as a model for Jouvenel's copy, which raises the question of where the inspiration for this impressive cycle came from.
The whole work is fairly consistent in style, and it gives the impression of having been executed under the influence of the Jouvenel Master's dominant artistic personality. All the other artists who collaborated on the manuscript, with three notable exceptions, appear to have developed their work more or less directly from his, although his personal contribution was limited. He painted only two of the large miniatures: one at the beginning of book II in which Guillaume Jouvenel is depicted both as Chancellor and as a knight, at the feet of the Trinity (fol. 21r), and one in book III depicting the story of David and Solomon (fol. 46v); his contribution to the small miniatures does not extend beyond folio 62. The Jouvenel Master produced densely worked paintings in luminous and intense colours, and his landscapes (and even some of his figures) show that he still adhered quite strongly to the aesthetic of the great Parisian illuminators of the first quarter of the century: his palette in particular owes a great deal to the Bedford Master. His monumental figures, however, clothed in their ample drapery, are indicative of a more developed artistic vision, associated with the new Netherlandish style. He attracted several illuminators of a younger generation, whose styles were similar although distinct from his own, to work with him. The two principal figures among them, the Master of the Geneva Boccaccio and the Master of Boethius BN fr. 809, each painted two of the large paintings: the former was responsible for those of books III and IV (fols 86r and 149r), while the latter executed those of books VI and VII (fols 250r and 319r). The Boethius Master was also responsible for the scene on folio 1 showing Chancellor Jouvenel in his copyist's studio. Konig believes that the two worked together to produce the large painting in book V (fol. 196r). These two artists can be distinguished from the Jouvenel Master by their vigorous execution and the marked dynamism of their figures. Together with the Jouvenel Master, they formed a close team, their bonds perhaps strengthened by family ties.
This fascinating manuscript has given rise to a long and continuing debate concerning its origins and the identity of its illustrators. Durrieu believed that some of its miniatures belonged to Jean Fouquet's early work from before his journey to Italy (i.e. before 1447), but Porcher demonstrated that this was impossible by referring to the 1449 date recorded by the scribe at the end of book V. The Mare historiarum then became the point of reference for a group of manuscripts that Porcher attributed to the Jouvenel Master, a contemporary of Fouquet's rather than Fouquet himself. Schaefer suggested that the principal artist should be identified with Coppin Delf, a painter in the service of the house of Anjou. Konig made the vital distinction between the Jouvenel Master properly speaking and his two closest emulators, the Boccaccio and Boethius Masters, and became the first to precisely map out the different hands involved in the illustration of the manuscript. After a tightly constructed argument, which nevertheless is not universally accepted, he concluded that the work was executed in Nantes. Sterling has attempted to identify the Jouvenel Master and the Geneva Boccaccio Master with Andre d'Ypres ( fl 1435-44) and his son Nicolas Dipre (Colin d'Amiens) respectively, two eminent Picard painters known to have been in Paris during the third quarter of the 15th century. All the evidence suggests, however, that the Jouvenel Master and his associates worked exclusively in western France, between Angers and Tours. This is supported by several arguments, including the fact that the Geneva Boccaccio Master's hand is present in a number of manuscripts executed for the Anjou family. It is also strengthened by the discovery of an important new work by the Jouvenel Master, which was certainly contemporary with the Mare historiarum: a Book of Hours of the Use of Angers (c. 1450-55; Paris, Bib. N., MS. nouv. acq. lat. 3211). The Jouvenel Master produced 15 of the surviving 18 miniatures, and these show him at the peak of his stylistic development.
The Jouvenel Master's hand has also been recognized in a Bible moralisee (c. 1402-4, 1450-65 and 1485-93; Paris, Bib. N., MS. fr. 166), a work left unfinished by the Limbourg brothers in 1404 (see [not available online]). The contribution of a team of Angers artists, including the Boccaccio Master, can be seen from the fourth gathering onwards (fols 25-32); the Jouvenel Master systematically repainted the heads of existing figures executed by a collaborator in the next gathering, on folios 33v and 40r. Two elements allow his hand to be identified: first, the powerful figure of the naked Christ in the second, right-hand scene on folio 40r is an inverted copy of the Christ supported by God the Father in the miniature of the Merciful God that he painted in a Book of Hours of the Use of Nantes (London, BL, Add. MS. 28785, fol. 58r); and second, the canon at the foot of the same folio recalls a figure in the Stigmatization of St Francis that Fouquet painted in the London Hours of the Use of Angers (see above). The canon's right-hand sleeve, with its elaborate folds, repeats line for line that of the canon shown praying in the miniature of St Francis, a miniature with which the Jouvenel Master was certainly familiar, since he himself had been the principal illustrator of this manuscript.
The Jouvenel Master worked again with the Boethius and Geneva Boccaccio Masters on a Book of Hours of Roman Use (c. 1455-60; Paris, Bib. N., MS. Rothschild 2530), but this time his two younger associates took charge of the project. They divided most of the illustrations equally between them, executing 15 each. The Jouvenel Master still exerted a strong influence, especially on the Geneva Boccaccio Master, whose Adoration of the Magi (fol. 60r), for example, was borrowed directly from the miniature of the same subject in the Angers Book of Hours. The Jouvenel Master himself executed only the last four miniatures in the Rothschild Hours: the Visitation (fol. 46r), the Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 115r), Pentecost (fol. 128v) and the Adoration of the Cross (fol. 173v). These miniatures, together with a Book of Hours of the Use of Rennes (Amsterdam, Bib. Philos. Hermetica), were possibly his last works but show that, despite aging, the artist retained all the brilliant colouring that was such an unmistakable distinguishing feature of his work.
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