PUCELLE, Jean

The tradition of Master Honor� was probably continued by his son-in-law Richard of Verdun who is known to have been employed by the Ste Chapelle in 1318. However, no books have survived which can be attributed to him. The next royal illuminator whose work is identifiable was Jean Pucelle. He is mentioned in documents between 1319 and 1327, however, books attributable to him (more than a dozen) exist up to the middle years of the century.

The Belleville Breviary comes from the workshop of Jean Pucelle. Pucelle’s style is close to that of Honor�. The drapery has the same soft modelling and in Pucelle’s presumed early work faces and hands are delicate and pallid. Nevertheless, a great many new features appear. The page from the Belleville Breviary reveals a wide range of decorative invention embracing naturalistic flowers, insects, birds and animals and grotesque little men playing musical instruments. But the whole effect is tightly controlled, associated as it is with a firm regular framework of narrow bars.

The influence of Italian painting is marked in Pucelle’s work, demonstrated by his interest in pictorial space. This is possibly the most revolutionary feature of his work. The exploitation of various rudimentary forms of perspective was a completely new feature of late thirteenth-century Italian painting, and Pucelle incorporated something of these experiments into his manuscript illuminations.

The page (folio 24v) from the Belleville Breviary shows David and Saul enclosed within a small doll’s-house-like construction, painted erratically but clearly in three dimensions. Below (on the bas-de-page) the scene of Cain murdering his brother is depicted.

The Belleville Breviary is a liturgical prayer book for the celebration of Mass, intended for recitation (volume 1: summer prayers, volume 2: winter prayers). It was probably intended for Jeanne de Belleville, the wife of Olivier de Clisson.

Both volumes of the Breviary deviate from the standard iconography. The illustrations to the Psalter include a cycle dedicated to the Sacraments. On folio 37r in volume 1, the Sacrament placed at the beginning of Psalm 70 is that of Confirmation, which is represented below, in the centre of the bas-de-page. The Dove of the Holy Ghost sweeps down to a young man who is receiving unction from the hands of a bishop. The miniature inserted into the right column of text shows St Peter in a boat being rocked by waves.

The liturgical year, the order of saints’ days, offices, and feasts prescribed by the church present an ever-moving cursus. The most complex and sophisticated reworking of the liturgical cycle in the Gothic period occurs in the calendar of the Belleville Breviary, painted by the renowned Parisian illuminator Jean Pucelle.

This complex program, worked out and written down by a Dominican theologian, is one of the few surviving instances of of an iconographic scheme being recorded in a text as well as in the work itself. One of only two extant pages from the Calendar of the Breviary shows the month of December with its “red-letter days” listed below, but in addition to the figure cutting wood from the bare wintry trees at the top there are typological elements that, according to the written program, are designed to prove “the concordance of the Old Testament with the New.” To this end, at the bottom of each of the twelve month a prophet hands an apostle a prophecy. Each prophet also removes a stone from the Synagogue, so that by December all that remains of it is a pile of rubble. The architectural symbolism, reminding us of the spatial metaphors of the cathedrals, continues above where the Virgin “by whom the door was opened to us” stands on top of a gate. She holds a pennant painted with an image representing an article of faith: a shrouded corpse rising from its grave.

This rather arcane program was so successful that it was copied into the calendars of books belonging to the French royal family for generations, especially in Book of Hours, which, with their calendars, provided lay people with their own cycle of daily readings and prayers to be recited at various times during the day.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

This double page (folios 34v and 35r) introduces the canonical hour of Lauds. The depicted scenes are the Visitation (on the right) and Christ before Pilate (on the left).

The Book of Hours of Jeanne d’�vreux, based on the Dominican liturgy, contains prayers and devotional texts for the private use and edification of the laity. Its 209 folios with Latin text contain 25 full-page miniatures and about 700 decorative marginal figures. It was a gift from King Charles IV of France (Charles the Fair, reigned 1322-1328) to his consort Jeanne d’�vreux (c. 1310-1371) on the occasion of their wedding or coronation.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

The Hours of Jeanne d’�vreux is the high point of Parisian court painting and represents a tribute to the refined artistic tastes of the time.

The cycle of illustrations begins at Matins with the Annunciation, which is placed opposite the Betrayal of Christ on the Mount of Olives. The miniaturist, Pucelle, evidently modelled his representation of spatial depth on the Italian Trecento painter Duccio di Buoninsegna.

Jean Pucelle, the French illuminator, is a controversial figure in 14th-century manuscript painting since his individual role in works attributed to him and his circle has not yet been fully defined. The manuscripts associated with him, however, are among the most important produced in this period, displaying an innovative approach to three-dimensional space, derived from Italian painting. This is thought to have been influential in manuscript and monumental painting, applied arts and sculpture.

The picture shows a miniature on folio 16r in the Book of Hours of Queen Jeanne d’�vreux. It represents the Annunciation. The miniaturist, Pucelle, evidently modelled his representation of spatial depth on the Italian Trecento painter Duccio di Buoninsegna.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

This double page (folios 61v and 62r) introduces the canonical hour of Terce in the Office of the Blessed Virgin. The depicted scenes are the Annunciation to the Shepherds (on the right) and Christ Carrying the Cross (on the left).

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

These paired paintings on folios 68v and 69r) introduce the prayers to be spoken at Sext and are among the most artistically important in the manuscript. They represent the Crucifixion (left) and the Adoration of the Magi (right). The Crucifixion is one of the few miniatures in this manuscript that are not surrounded by a border, and it is the only one that takes up the entire page. This expansiveness strongly emphasizes the narrative elements in the composition.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

This double page (folios 75v and 76r) shows the Descent from the Cross and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

The devotion for Vespers begins with a painting of the Flight to Egypt (folio 83r). The composition of the picture opposite (folio 82v), the Lamentation of the Dead Christ, is probably inspired by Duccio.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

The cycle of prayers dedicated to the French King Louis IX, who was canonised in 1297, begins with this pair of miniatures on folios 102v and 103r. On the left Pucelle has created one of his most exciting perspective compositions: Jeanne can be seen inside a church kneeling at her prie-dieu, saying her prayers before a statue of St Louis. The scene on the right shows St Louis being scourged by his father confessor.

This tiny prayer book was copied by a gifted anonymous scribe, who fixed the text on extremely thin, transparent vellum in magnificently regular letters. The miniatures from the workshop of Jean Pucelle are all done in grisaille using a rich scale of grey shades. Three cycles of illustrations were provided for Jeanne’s personal devotions. The first two encompass eight scenes from the childhood of Christ and another eight from the Passion. The third depicts nine episodes from the life of King Louis, who was canonised in 1297 and passionately honoured at the French court.

In the picture on the left (folio 148v), St Louis, who performed great acts of charity throughout his life, washes the feet of some paupers. The page of text opposite (folio 149r) includes several of the drolleries and amusing fabulous beasts characteristic of this manuscript.