In 1976, the expert François Avril attributed eight illuminated works to a new artist whom he considers trained in the circle of Jean Fouquet. In 1993, the specialist Nicole Reynaud furthered the study of this artist by giving him a convention name, the Master of Jean Charpentier (active in Tours, second half of the 15th century), based on the Book of Hours he painted around 1480-1485 for Jean Charpentier (notary and secretary to King Louis XII, later mayor of Angers), now preserved in the Bibliothèque municipale d’Angers (ms. 2048). Nicole Reynaud also attributes to this artist several illuminated manuscripts, both religious and secular, thus defining the outlines of a leading artistic personality. In his youth, the Master of Jean Charpentier was more influenced by Jean Fouquet: his brushstroke is more sophisticated, less heavy, and the morphology of his figures is more elongated. It is during this time that the Master of Jean Charpentier illuminated the superb copy of the Lamentations de Saint Bernard for the Duke of Nemours, Jacques d’Armagnac, now held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (ms. fr. 916). Toward the end of his career, the illuminator’s style became heavier and more akin to that of Jean Bourdichon. During the 1480s-1490s, he painted the Book of Hours of Philippe de Commynes (counselor and chamberlain to King Louis XI), now preserved in the British Library in London (Harley 2863).

As proposed in the scientific literature, the Breviary of Saint-Julien de Tours, from which our two leaves originate, dating back to around 1470-1475, would be at the head of the chronology of the works of the Master of Jean Charpentier. In addition to the technique of the camaïeu, the delicacy with which the gold is applied on the background recalls the historiated initials of the famous Hours of Etienne Chevalier painted by Jean Fouquet (most of the leaves are now at the Condé Museum in Chantilly). Furthermore, the illuminations of the Bréviaire de Saint-Julien de Tours are particularly similar to three Books of Hours from Jean Fouquet’s workshop (Basel, Historisches Museum, deposited at the University Library; Saint Petersburg, Biblioteka Akademii nauk ms. O.104 and the Bigot Hours, in private hands). It is therefore not surprising that our Saint Catherine of Alexandria, whose quality almost surpasses the other works of the Master of Jean Charpentier, was classified as the work of a follower of Jean Fouquet before being properly recognized as a work by the Master of Jean Charpentier.

Commissioned by the Abbey of Saint-Julien de Tours around 1470-1475, the breviary is still in their possession two centuries later, as indicated by a handwritten note dating from the seventeenth century inscribed on the first folio of the Lund fragment. It is unknown when the manuscript left the Abbey of Tours, but an inscription also dating from the seventeenth century by its calligraphy could be a clue: "faict par moy Christophle G[er]ault (?) / Commendement faict à Monsieur le lieutenant sivil [et] criminel / Iacque" (fragment of the psalter, in private hands). Nevertheless, two fragments of the breviary appear in Sweden at the very end of the eighteenth century or at the beginning of the following century: the psalter is in the collection of Baron Carl Göran Bonde (1757-1840), who may have acquired the manuscript in its original form in 1801-1802 when he traveled to France for diplomatic reasons. In the early nineteenth century, the fragment of the calendar with the temporal (bound together) belong to the mathematician Christian Gissel Berlin (1800-1863). For now, six illuminated leaves (including the two here) from the Bréviaire de Saint-Julien de Tours are known and preserved in various collections around the world.

Parent fragments and sister leaves

Calendar and Temporal (Lund, Universitetsbibliotek, Med. Hand. 38).

Psalter (Örebro, Brevens bruk, private collection).

Meeting at the golden gate (Williamstown, Williams College Museum, 79.10).

Christ resurrected (Keio, University of Keio, collection Matsuda, ms. 130).

Annunciation (London, Sotheby’s, June 6, 2000, lot 20).

Presentation to the Temple (London, Sotheby’s, June 10, 1989, lot 12; collection Sion Segre Amar (1910-2003), deposited in Basel, Universitätsbibliothek (Depositum des Historischen Museums Basel), Comites Latentes CL 236).

Saint Julian of Brioude (London, St James's Ancient Art; private collection).