Enguerrand Quarton

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The Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in the Louvre, c. 1455

Enguerrand Quarton (or Charonton) (c. 1410 – c. 1466) was a French painter and

Musée Condé, Chantilly). Two smaller altarpieces
are also attributed to him.

Life and career

The Requin Altarpiece, Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon

Quarton was born in the diocese of

Anti-Popes
were no longer living in Avignon, but it remained Papal territory, and the city contained many Italian merchants.

Except for some banners, no works by Quarton for

most of Provence
, are documented, although René was a keen patron of the arts who employed D'Eyck for many years and patronised several other artists. Many of Quarton's clients were important figures in René's court and administration, like the Chancellor of Provence who commissioned the Missal of Jean des Martins (BnF, Ms nouv. aq. Latin. 2661).

Although the influence of Quarton can be seen strongly in subsequent Provençal painting, and also in some works as far away as Germany and Italy, he was later almost wholly forgotten until the Coronation of the Virgin was exhibited in Paris in 1900, since when both awareness of his importance, and the number of works attributed to him, has steadily increased. The attribution to him of the Avignon Pietà has only been generally accepted since about the 1960s.

The Virgin of Mercy

The Virgin of Mercy, 1452, Musée Condé, Chantilly, Oise

This work, also known as the Cadard Altarpiece after the donor, uses a motif that is most often found in Italian art, and was developed by

Saint John the Evangelist tower over the donor and his wife, who are themselves slightly larger than the faithful sheltered by the Virgin's robe. The contract of February 1452 specifies that both Quarton and Pierre Villate will work on the piece, but art historians have struggled to detect two hands in the works as it exists, although Dominique Thiébaut suggests some of the sheltering figures are weaker than the rest of the work, and by Villate. One possibility is that Villate was responsible for a predella
now lost.

A recently discovered document of 1466 orders some painted or stained glass for the Town Hall of Arles from a "maître Enguibran" living in Avignon. He may have had help from Pierre Villate, who is documented as fulfilling many commissions for glass, and was also a party to the contract for the Virgin of Mercy. Hardly any work certainly his survives, but it is clear he had a considerable reputation in his day. He was younger than Quarton, but already a master of the Guild in 1452.

The Coronation of the Virgin

The Coronation of the Virgin, 1452-53

The

Holy Trinity as identical figures (very rare in the 15th century, though there are other examples), but allows Quarton to represent the Virgin as he chooses. Around the Trinity, blue and red angels are deployed similar to those in Fouquet's Melun diptych (now Antwerp).[1] The depiction of Rome (left) and Jerusalem (right) in the panoramic landscape below is also specified in the contract; the donor had been on a pilgrimage that included both cities. Beneath this Purgatory (left) and Hell (right) open up, and in the centre the donor kneels before a Crucifixion. On the extreme left a church is shown in "cut-away" style, containing a Mass of Saint Gregory. Quarton was given seventeen months from the contract date to deliver the painting by September 29, 1454. As is usual, materials were carefully specified; elements of the language used appear to come from the dialect of Quarton's native Picardy, suggesting much of the final draft was by him. The contract has been described as "the most detailed to survive for medieval European painting".[2]

Like many of Quarton's landscape backgrounds, this depicts the Provençal landscape in a style derived from Italian painting, whilst his figures are more influenced by Netherlandish artists like

Cézanne and others (some sources also mention Mont Ventoux).[4] The painting remained for more than three centuries in the monastery Chartreuse du Val de Bénédiction, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, for which it was commissioned by a local clergyman, Jean de Montagny. Since 1986 it is part of the collection of the Musée Pierre-de-Luxembourg [fr
] in the same town.

The Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

Main article: Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

The

Rhône
from Avignon, and is sometimes known as the "Villeneuve Pietà".

Other attributions

Circumcision of Jesus, Huntington Library

Some other attributions have been proposed by Luc Ta-Van-Thinh (2002):

  • "Pierre de Luxembourg seeing the Christ crucified", painting on wood (musée du Petit Palais d'Avignon)
  • "Saint Siffrein", painting on wood (musée du Petit Palais d'Avignon)
  • "The Coronation of the Virgin, between Saint Siffrein and Saint Michael", triptych on wood (old cathedral of Saint-Siffrein of Carpentras)
  • "Saint Siffrein between saint Michael and saint Catherine of Alexandria", glass in the old cathedral of Saint-Siffrein of Carpentras

Illuminated manuscripts

A number of

Morgan Library
, on which they worked closely together, with some miniatures apparently drawn by d'Eyck and painted by Quarton, who also did others all by himself.

Another Book of Hours, in the Huntington Library is rather later, but variable in quality. A large and sumptuous missal in the BnF, dated 1466, with two full-page miniatures, three smaller, and many historiated initials, shows Quarton's fully developed style, as do two large miniatures added to the famous earlier Boucicaut Book of Hours by Quarton, probably in the 1460s. Some miniatures of quality from a further Hours in Namur complete those currently attributed to him.

Notes

  1. ^ Image:Fouquet Madonna.jpg
  2. ^ Dominique Thiébaut: "Enguerrand Quarton", Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, October 5, 2007, [1]
  3. ^ Walther & Wolf, p.360.
  4. ^ Sterling, Charles, Enguerrand Quarton: le peintre de la Pietà d'Avignon, p.63, 1983, Ministère de la culture, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux,
    ISBN 2711802299
    , 9782711802296
  5. ^ Lucie-Smith, Edward: A Concise History of French Painting, p. 26, Thames & Hudson, London, 1971.

References

Further reading

External links

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