The figure subjects are of various degrees of excellence. The
four evangelists are vivid, and recall the portraits of Ghirlandaio, and
it is to Italy also that the illuminator is indebted for his
architectural and sculptural details. Yet Bourdichon is inferior to
Fouquet in colouring, as the latter is to the Italians in design and
composition. Perhaps he is most successful in his flowers and insects.
"Nothing," said Muntz, "is less like the elegant foliages of Ghirlandaio
and Attavante, and nothing is more worthy of being put in comparison
with them."[60]
[60] _La Renaissance en Italie, etc_., 547-8.
An illuminator of the name of Jehan Poyet is said to have assisted in
the "Hours," thus while Bourdichon painted the miniatures, Poyet put in
the flowers and fruit, etc.; but this share of work is by some believed
to belong to a smaller Book of Hours executed for the Queen. Flowers and
fruit are said to have been Poyet's speciality, and it is quite possible
that he may have had the painting of the borders of the "Grandes
Heures," while Bourdichon did the rest. The writer of the MS. was
another native of Tours, named Jehan Riveron. During the reign of
Francis I. the school of Tours was removed to Paris because the Court
had settled there.
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