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Hours of tienne Chevalier

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Saint J ohn on Patmos - probably the first of the surviving miniatures from the Hours.
The Hours of tienne Chevalier is an illuminated book of hours commissioned by tienne
Chevalier, treasurer to king Charles VII of France, from the miniature painter and illuminator
J ean Fouquet.
Only 48 of its leaves with 47 miniatures survive, dispersed across seven collections in Europe
and the United States of America. 40 of these illuminations are held at the Muse Cond in
Chteau de Chantilly in France.
Contents
1 History
2 Composition
o 2.1 Organisation
o 2.2 List of surviving folios
3 Analysis of the miniatures
o 3.1 Originality
o 3.2 Views of contemporary buildings and landscapes
4 Bibliography
5 External links
6 References
History
It was probably commissioned by Chevalier for his personal use around 1452, just after he was
made treasurer of France by Charles VII of France and just after the death of his wife, who does
not appear in any of the illuminations with him. He was definitely the commissioner of the work,
since his portrait appears frequently in it, as do his full name "Maistre Estienne Chevalier"
(notably in the border of the image of The Presentation of the Virgin) and his cypher "EE" in
several of the miniatures. It was probably completed around 1460 - Franois Avril and Nicole
Reynaud state that for most of the 1450s Fouquet spent almost all his time on this and another
commission from Chevalier, the Melun Diptych.
[1]

The manuscript was owned by Chevalier's descendents until the 17th century and by his last
direct descendent, Nicolas Chevalier (15621630). The scholar Franois Roger de Gaignires
indicates that it appeared intact at the end of the 17th century and so it was probably split up over
the course of the 18th century, with each miniature cut out to turn them into separate artworks
and their textual parts obscured.
[2]

40 of the best-preserved miniatures were mounted on wooden panels by a Parisian frame-maker
at the end of the 18th century. During the French Revolution, these 40 miniatures were bought by
an art-dealer from Basel who sold them in 1809 to the German banker Georges Brentano. His
son Louis sold them on to Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale in 1891 for 250,000 francs. Prince
Henry then exhibited them at his chteau de Chantilly in its Santuario, where they can still be
seen.
[3]

One miniature of David at Prayer is recorded in 1831 in the collection of the English poet
Samuel Rogers, close to 40 other miniatures - these passed to the British Museum in 1886. In
1881, another miniature (of Saint Anne and the three Maries) was bought by the bibliothque
nationale de France. In 1889, comte Paul Durrieu, curator of paintings at the muse du Louvre,
oversaw the purchase of a miniature of Saint Martin, and in the Louvre's drawings collection
discovered another, of Saint Margaret, which had been presented to the Louvre in 1856. In 1922
he discovered yet another in the collections of Upton House, Warwickshire (National Trust),
showing St Michael fighting the Dragon. In 1946, two more leaves resurfaced in a sale at
Sothebys - these showed The Hand of God protecting the Faithful and A Miracle of Saint Vrain -
the first of these was acquired by the banker Robert Lehman, who donated it to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York in 1975, whilst the latter was bought by Georges Wildenstein,
whose son donated it to the Muse Marmottan-Monet in 1971 along with a collection of other
miniatures cut from manuscripts, which has been on show there since 1981.
[4]
That same year, a
double page or bifolium of text from the manuscript was rediscovered in a private collection.
[5]

Composition
Organisation
For a long time the book's composition was only known from the 40 illuminations in the muse
Cond, which only gave a succession of scenes from the life of Christ followed by episodes from
saints' lives or from the Golden Legend. Yet, like any book of hours, it would originally have
featured the three offices from the Liturgy of the Hours - the Office of the Virgin, the Office of
the Passion and the Office of the Holy Spirit.
Also, the book's composition was novel and complex, since each of the three offices was
interlaced with some from the other two, making it difficult to determine the order of the
illuminations. A certain number of illustrations can also be determined as missing after this
order's establishment. The original manuscript probably included an illustration of Saint Luke, of
the prayer Obsecro te, of prime and of Sext of the Office of the Holy Spirit, of sext in the Office
of the Passion, along with several pleas or prayers to saints such as Lawrence, Christopher or
Sebastian.
[5]

List of surviving folios
In the order determined by Nicole Reynaud (2006), the surviving folios are as follows (with the
collection being the muse Cond at Chantilly unless otherwise noted):
Saint John on Patmos (Gospel of J ohn)
Adoration of the Magi (Gospel of Matthew)
Ascension (Gospel of Mark)
tienne Chevalier praying before the Virgin (Office of the Virgin, Matins)
Visitation (Office of the Virgin, Lauds)
Arrest of Christ (Office of the Cross, matins)
Annunciation (Office of the Holy Spirit, matins)
Nativity (Office of the Virgin, prime)
Jesus before Pilate (Office of the Cross, prime)
Announcement of the Virgin's Death (Office of the Virgin, terce)
Christ carrying the cross (Office of the Cross, terce)
Pentecost (Office of the Holy Spirit, terce)
Dormition (Office of the Virgin, sext)
Funeral of the Virgin (Office of the Virgin, nones)
Crucifixion (Office of the Cross, nones)
Fountain of the apostles (Office of the Holy Spirit, nones)
Assumption (Office of the Virgin, vespers)
Descent from the cross (Office of the Cross, vespers)
Right hand of God driving out demons (Office of the Holy Spirit, vpre), parchment, 19,4
x 14,6 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection
Coronation of the Virgin (Office of the Virgin, compline)
Anointing of Christ (Office of the Cross, compline)
The Holy Spirit illuminating the faithful (Office of the Holy Spirit, compline)
Marriage of the Virgin (Office of the Virgin for Advent)
David at prayer (Psalms), 19,7 x 15,2 cm, British Library
Funeral scenes (offices of the dead, vespers)
Job and his friends (Office of the dead, vigiles)
Piet (Hymns of the Stabat Mater)
Saint Bernard (poem by Saint Bernard)
Saint Michael fighting the dragon (suffrage), 20,3 x 14,2 cm, (of which the miniature
15,7 x 12 cm), Upton House, Bearsted Collection, National Trust
Birth of John the Baptist (suffrage)
Saint John the Evangelist and the Wedding at Cana (suffrage)
Martyrdom of Saint Peter (suffrage)
Conversion of saint Paul (suffrage)
Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (suffrage)
Martyrdom of Saint James (suffrage)
Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (suffrage)
Charity of saint Martin (suffrage), 20,9 x 14,3 cm (16,1 x 11,7 cm), muse du Louvre,
dpartement des arts graphiques
Saint Nicolas consecrated (suffrage)
Saint Hilary at the council of pope Leo I (suffrage)
Miracle of saint Vrain (suffrage), 22 x 14 cm, muse Marmottan-Monet, gift by Daniel
Wildenstein
Saint Mary Magdalene anointing Christ's feet (suffrage)
Martyrdom of saint Catherine (suffrage)
Saint Margaret and Olibrius (suffrage), 8,9 x 11,7 cm, muse du Louvre, dpartement
des arts graphiques
Saint Anne and the three Maries, 16,3 x 12,7 cm (don't miniature 15,9 x 12,4 cm),
Bibliothque nationale de France
Martyrdom of saint Appoline (suffrage)
All the saints, the Virgin and the Trinity (suffrage)
Double page of text (psalms 129 and 142, and litanies), foliot, 20,1 x 14,8 cm, collection
of Roger and Alix De Kesel Deurle (Belgium)
Analysis of the miniatures
Originality
Views of contemporary buildings and landscapes
Bibliography
Nicole Reynaud, Jean Fouquet - Les Heures d'Etienne Chevalier, d. Faton, Octobre
2006, 280 p. ISBN :2878440765 (latest reference monograph)
Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 193-217
Charles Sterling and Claude Schaefer, Jean Fouquet. Les Heures d'tienne Chevalier,
Paris, 1971.
Nicole Reynaud, Jean Fouquet, catalogue d'exposition, Paris, 1981 ("Les dossiers du
dpartement des Peintures", no 22).
J udith Frstel, tienne Chevalier, J ean Fouquet et Melun , 6e colloque historique des
bords de Marne : Prsence royale et aristocratique dans lest parisien la fin du Moyen
ge, Nogent-sur-Marne, 2008, p. 96-107 Online text
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hours of tienne Chevalier.
Hours of tienne Chevalier in a virtual exhibition on J ean Fouquet - Bibliotheque
Nationale de France
References
1. Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 198-200
2. Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 193
3. Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 193-194
4. Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 194
5. Franois Avril, Jean Fouquet, peintre et enlumineur du XVe sicle ; catalogue de
l'exposition, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France / Hazan, 2003 (ISBN 2-7177-2257-
2), p. 200
Categories:
Illuminated books of hours
Collections of the Louvre
Bibliothque nationale de France collections
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
15th-century illuminated manuscripts

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