Jean Mignon
Jean Mignon was a French artist in painting and
At least half of his prints, over thirty,[4] use compositions by the Italian painter Luca Penni, who was also at the palace from 1537 through to the 1540s.[5] Others use designs by Francesco Primaticcio, the leader of the school after the suicide of Rosso Fiorentino in 1540.[6] Mignon's prints number around sixty, with some uncertainty over the authorship of a number.[7]
Nothing is known about his origins or early life. His first documentary appearance is in 1537 in the royal accounts, as a painter at the Palace of Fontainebleau, continuing until 1540; no painting identifiable as his is known, and his etchings form his known oeuvre. His only dated prints are one of 1543, and "five or six" dated 1544; only two prints are signed, one also dated 1544. At some point, like Penni, he moved to Paris, where he is recorded from 1550 until his death in the winter of 1556 to 1557.[8]
Prints
His prints cover a range of subjects, including classical mythology and literature, religious subjects, and
Like other School of Fontainebleau etchings, many have very elaborate frames, and may have been of interest to buyers as models for craftsmen in other media. But with one partial exception, none of the frames seem to exactly copy the elaborate
There is an early series of 20
There are six large prints (around 320 x 440 mm) with the story of the Trojan War, regarded as coming from 1544 or 1545. Three drawings for them by Penni survive (Louvre), in the reverse direction, to which Mignon has added vegetation. These do not have frames.[13] They show a characteristic of Penni and Mignon's images, with most figures having their mouths open.[14] Another early series shows four standard scenes from the Passion of Jesus, beginning with a Deposition; these are in vertical format, with frames.[15]
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Terminal Figure: Sphinx with crescent in her hair
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Deposition of Christ
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The Trojans Bring the Wooden Horse into Their City
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Cleopatra Bitten By an Asp
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Women Bathing, late period. A typical Fontainbleau subject, to which no classical incident seems to be attached.
Notes
- ^ with frame; Boorsch, 280–281
- ^ Boorsch, 80–81; Jacobson, 476
- ^ Reed, 27; Boorsch, 79–91
- ^ Boorsch, 271
- ^ Jacobson, 476
- ^ Boorsch, 82
- ^ Boorsch, 80, 89; the fullest list online is at his BnF page Archived 29 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Jacobson, 476; Boorsch, 89
- ^ a b Boorsch, 90
- ^ Boorsch, 276
- ^ Boorsch, 268–269
- ^ Jenkins, 226–227
- ^ Boorsch, 269–271
- ^ Boorsch, 270
- ^ Pietà Archived 27 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine, British Museum, Cat: 1850,0527.61
References
- Boorsch, Suzanne, in Jacobson, Karen (ed), (often wrongly cat. as ISBN 0962816221
- Jacobson, Karen – see "Boorsch", used for the biography with no given author
- Jenkins, Catherine, in The Renaissance of Etching, By Catherine Jenkins, Nadine Orenstein, Freyda Spira, Peter Fuhring, 2019, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 9781588396495, google books
- Landau, David, in Landau, David, and Parshall, Peter, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0300068832
- Reed, Sue Welsh, in: Reed, Sue Welsh & Wallace, Richard (eds), Italian Etchers of the Renaissance and Baroque, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1989, ISBN 0-87846-306-2or 304-4 (pb)
Further reading
- Catalogues
- Herbet, Félix: Les graveurs de l'École de Fontainebleau, B. M. Israël, Amsterdam, 1969 (reprint)
- Jenkins, Catherine, Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau, c. 1542–47, 2017
- Zerner, Henri: The School of Fontainebleau: Etchings and Engravings, 1969, Thames & Hudson (also École de Fontainebleau, Gravures, Arts et métiers graphiques, Paris, 1969)
- Articles
- Aldovini, L., "Jean Mignon", Print Quarterly 22 (2005), p. 440-442