Their stamp came from Italy, and if not so deep as that of Flanders or
Dijon, it was equally inevitable and more permanent.
The first name that we meet with among the illuminators of Touraine who
are expressly connected with the Renaissance is that of Jean Fouquet. Of
his origin or training nothing seems to be known, but he was born
probably about 1415. He must have acquired distinction even as a youth,
for some twenty-five years afterwards (1440-3) he was invited to Rome to
paint the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and he stayed in Italy until
1447. On his return to France he was made _valet de chambre_ and painter
to Charles VII. at Tours, and continued in the same office under Louis
XI. It was part of the business of the _paintre du roy_ to design and
provide decorations and costumes, banners and devices for all state
ceremonies, and this became Fouquet's duty at the funeral of Charles
VII., and when Louis instituted the Order of St. Michel in 1470, and the
last trace of him as an artist occurs about 1477. His sons, Louis and
Francis, were both painters, and, like himself, worked much at the
illumination of books. It is curious that this great master--one of the
greatest miniaturists of any school, and one of the founders of the
French school of painting--became entirely forgotten until the discovery
of some fragments of a Book of Hours painted for Estienne Chevalier, the
King's treasurer.
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