PERRÉAL, Jean - b. ~1455 Paris, d. 1530 Paris - WGA

PERRÉAL, Jean

(b. ~1455 Paris, d. 1530 Paris)

Jean Perréal, also called Jean de Paris, French painter, architect, and sculptor. He was the most important portrait painter in France at the beginning of the 16th century.

Perréal was a court painter to the Bourbons and later worked for Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I of France. He traveled to Italy several times between 1492 and 1530 and in 1514 visited London, where he painted a portrait of the princess Mary Tudor. Perréal designed tombs, medals, and public ceremonials. A painting of Charles VIII of France and a miniature, Pierre Sala, are probably the most important works now attributed to him. Perréal was a superb craftsman who in his portraits grafted a French elegance of design and presentation onto conventional Flemish realism.

He was an accomplished designer of tombs, medals, theater scenery and ceremonies, including the marriage of King Louis XII and his second wife Mary Tudor. Working in a glazed paint pigment on glass, he also crafted a unique portrait of Louis XII, entitled Louis XII of France in Prayer (Walters Art Museum). As a sculptural designer, Perréal sketched the design for the tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany, which was executed by the French sculptor Michel Colombe, and is now in the cathedral of Nantes.

La Complainte de Nature à l'Alchimiste errant

This miniature is an illustration to a poem by Jean de Meung in the manuscript Complainte de la Nature à l’alchimiste errant by Pierre Sala. According to the dedication to Francis I, the poem has been translated from Latin from an ancient manuscript found in an old castle of Dauphine. The miniature was taken c. 1850 from the manuscript MS 3220 now in the Biblioth�que Sainte-Genevi�ve in Paris and it belongs to the collection of the Mus�e Marmottan Monet, Paris. The manuscript contains 44 sheets, Perr�al’s miniature was between the current folios 5 and 6.

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Portrait of King Louis XII of France at Prayer

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Portrait of Pierre Sala

This portrait of Pierre Sala, French poet, a ‘royal valet de chambre’, is on folio 17 of the manuscript containing the collection of love poems Petit Livre d’Amour by Pierre Sala.

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Portrait of a Man

According to an old, barely legible inscription on the back, the model is Marin de La Chesnaye, parliamentary advisor. The date of 1493 may refer to the painting’s execution, or it may be the year the model took up his position.

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Portrait of a Woman

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Portrait of an Unknown Woman

The National Portrait Gallery acquired this portrait as Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and wife of James IV of Scotland. However, both the style and the lack of any securely identified portraits of Margaret Tudor make this identification unlikely.

The painterly technique suggests a French or possibly Flemish origin. The woman’s costume is also in the style of French court dress of the early sixteenth century. Her gold jewellery and the stylised pomegranate and leaf pattern, commonly reproduced on expensive silks of the period, hint at her noble status. Recent microscopic examination of her medallion has revealed a horseman hunting with a falcon. Falconry and courtly love were frequently linked in medieval literature, so it is possible that this woman is wearing a love token.

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