Jean Pucelle

French painter

• Born: c. 1290
• Birthplace: Paris or northern France
• Died: 1334
• Place of death: Paris, France

Jean Pucelle’s manuscript illuminations depicted for the first time by a painter in northern Europe coherent, three-dimensional spatial settings. The emotional interaction of figures in his work influenced the direction of artistic developments in northern European painting in the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.

Early Life

Although more documents can be connected with Jean Pucelle (zhahn pew-sehl) than with most medieval artists in northern Europe, they reveal comparatively little information about his personal life. Because he begins to appear in documents with an important commission indicating that he was a mature artist in 1319, his birth probably occurred around the end of the thirteenth century. One characteristic feature of his illumination is the lively quality of border ornament, which shows close observation of nature and inventive, often humorous grotesques. These stylistic traits, which were particularly developed in north French illumination, may point to a birthplace in this region.

It is likely that he was trained in the traditional medieval manner as an apprentice to one or more artists probably in Paris, which was a major artistic center in the Gothic period. Another possible influence on Pucelle’s formative background was the intellectual milieu of the University of Paris, one of the main universities in the later Middle Ages. As a center for theological studies, its faculty was primarily drawn from the mendicant orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. Most of the manuscripts that Pucelle illuminated were for either Dominican or Franciscan usage. In addition, Pucelle’s complex and original iconographic programs, accompanied in {I}The Belleville Breviary{/I} (1323-1326) by a written explanation most likely composed by the artist, suggest that Pucelle was both literate and receptive to intellectual currents in theology.

Life’s Work

Pucelle was primarily an illuminator of manuscripts. The first documented reference to his work as an artist, however, is a payment listed in the 1319-1324 accounts of the Confraternity of St. Jacques-aux-Pèlerins in Paris for the design of the group’s great seal. The importance of this confraternity’s membership demonstrates Pucelle’s high standing as an artist. It also shows that the range of his artistic endeavors extended beyond manuscript illumination to include various aspects of design in other media.

Pucelle’s manuscript illumination, on which his artistic reputation is based, is generally divided into two phases: early works dating around 1320 and mature works done from about 1323 until his death in 1334. The Italian influences in the illumination of his mature period suggest that a trip to Italy intervened between these two stages. The early works, especially {I}The Breviary of Blanche of France{/I} (c. 1320) and The Hours of Jeanne of Savoy (c. 1320), show several important characteristics of Pucelle’s illumination. Both manuscripts, which were intended for young women of the French nobility, are an indication of Pucelle’s continued patronage by members of the French royal family. The illumination, executed by several artists, demonstrates how Pucelle often collaborated with other illuminators. Also, the style of Pucelle’s painting in these manuscripts shows connections with Parisian illuminators of the early fourteenth century. At the same time, however, his miniatures evidence new interest in modeled figures painted in lighter color tonalities, spatial effects, and inventive border drolleries.

Miniatures in Pucelle’s manuscripts from around 1323 on give indications of inspiration from Italian art of the early Trecento. From study of the Maestà altarpiece by Duccio di Buoninsegna in the Cathedral of Siena, painted between 1308 and 1311, Pucelle was attracted to the depiction of three-dimensional spatial settings and emotional interaction of figures in narrative scenes. In The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux, the Virgin of the Annunciation stands within a room while the angel approaches through an antechamber in a composition very similar to The Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin from the Maestà. In Pucelle’s The Entombment in this book of hours, the Virgin embracing Christ’s body and the lamenting figure of Mary Magdalene behind the tomb repeat poses from the Maestà’s depiction. Similarly, emotional scenes combined with sculptural plasticity of figures show Pucelle’s adaptation of aspects of Giovanni Pisano’ sculptured pulpit at the church of San Andrea in Pistoia, completed in 1301: The grisaille painting technique of The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux gives the painted figures a sculpturesque solidity. Other manuscripts with illuminations by Pucelle continue these Italian-inspired visual interests. A miniature in The Miracles of Notre Dame (executed before 1334), for example, depicts a Tuscan fortress much like the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The varied types of artistic borrowing, from three-dimensional spatial settings to iconographic motifs, suggest that Pucelle’s knowledge of Italian art was based on firsthand observation.

Documentary evidence connects Pucelle with three illuminated manuscripts that represent the artistic achievement of his mature painting. The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux is a small book of hours done for Jeanne d’Evreux, the wife of Charles IV, between her marriage in 1325 and her husband’s death in 1328. This manuscript has been identified with a book of hours described in a codicil to Jeanne d’Evreux’s testament in 1371 as being illuminated by Pucelle. It was willed to her nephew, Charles V, and is mentioned in an inventory of his private collection of treasures at Vincennes. Finally, it was owned by Charles V’s brother, the great bibliophile Jean, duke of Berry; it appears in inventories of his library in the early fifteenth century described as “Heures de Pucelle” (hours by Pucelle). The Billyng Bible, copied by an English scribe named Robert Billyng, contains a colophon that dates the manuscript’s completion in 1327 and names Jean Pucelle, Anciau de Cens, and Jaquet Maci as illuminators. The Belleville Breviary was first owned by Jeanne de Belleville. Liturgical evidence from this Dominican breviary, including the absence of the office of Saint Thomas Aquinas which the Dominicans adopted in 1326 dates the manuscript between 1323 and 1326. It contains marginal records of payment by Pucelle to other illuminators and decorators. Two other manuscripts have been attributed on stylistic grounds to the last years of Pucelle’s career, The Breviary of Jeanne d’Evreux and The Miracles of Notre Dame. Other manuscripts are associated with Pucelle’s shop.

The primary characteristics of Pucelle’s illumination are depicting figures in unified, often three-dimensional spatial settings; portraying the psychological reactions of figures in narrative scenes; and presenting abstract theological concepts through visual iconography. The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux, which is considered a masterwork done entirely by Pucelle, shows many of these artistic features. The three-dimensional enclosure in which the Annunciation takes place shows the depiction of spatial surroundings. In other miniatures, figures are tightly grouped, but the grisaille painting technique in shades of gray heightens the impression of plastically rendered forms. Many of the miniatures, especially in the Passion cycle, depict strong emotional reactions as seen when the Virgin swoons at the Crucifixion. In addition, the borders are enlivened with bas-de-page scenes that, as in the Annunciation to the Shepherds, extend the theme of the miniature. The crouching figures that support the architectural frames of some miniatures as well as the drolleries and grotesques that emerge from line endings reflect the observation of nature and lively humor characteristic of northern sculpture and illumination. The Belleville Breviary is especially outstanding for its complex iconographic program. Although parts of its illumination are now missing, the written exposition of the iconography prefaced to the manuscript along with surviving portions permit reconstruction of a program that includes Old Testament prophets revealing a prophecy as a New Testament article of faith in the calendar, three full-page miniatures that complete and expand on these relationships between Old and New Testaments, and in the Psalter, the idea of Virtues overcoming Vices, all culminating in the Last Judgment.

In most manuscripts associated with Pucelle, some variations in style and quality of illumination show that he usually worked with other miniaturists and decorators. The illumination of the Billyng Bible, for example, generally displays more conservative and traditional stylistic and compositional features, although it is contemporary with the aesthetically innovative hours of Jeanne d’Evreux. While such collaboration was a typical practice in Gothic manuscript illumination, it raises questions about Pucelle’s artistic movement. Some view him as the head of a workshop, planning iconographic and illustrative elements and executing major parts of the illumination. Another interpretation suggests that he was one of several independent illuminators working on commission for a Parisian stationer. Regardless of the amount of his personal painting in any single manuscript with which he is connected, however, at his death in 1334, Pucelle had participated in, and probably directed the illumination of, many of the most outstanding French manuscripts of the first half of the fourteenth century.

Significance

While further study will continue to clarify Pucelle’s precise artistic role in the manuscripts with which his name is associated, his connection with these prominent artistic works shows him to have been a major innovating force in northern European art of the fourteenth century. By merging qualities of Italian and northern painting and sculpture, his illumination introduced new aesthetic concerns. His narrative scenes show a psychological interaction of figures with heightened emotion. The borders and expanded bas-de-page scenes in many of his manuscripts are enlivened with a naturalism and keen observation characteristic of northern Gothic art. His personal iconographic invention, particularly evident in The Belleville Breviary, demonstrates his intellectual grasp of theological concepts. Throughout his illumination, these creative artistic ideas are presented with an exquisite refinement characteristic of the Parisian court style.

As a recognition of his achievement as an artist, Pucelle’s illumination continued to influence developments in French painting into the early fifteenth century. His immediate successor, the illuminator Jean le Noir, repeated Pucelle’s compositional innovations with some modifications throughout a career that extended from the 1330’s to the 1370’. Pucelle’s stylistic interests influenced late fourteenth century painters, as seen, for example, in Parement de Narbonne, which also adopts the grisaille technique. The identification of manuscripts illuminated by Pucelle in Jeanne d’Evreux’s Testament and in the duke of Berry’s inventories, unusual during this period, also attests this artist’s continued reputation. The quality, creativity, and influence of his illumination make Jean Pucelle one of the most significant artists of the later Middle Ages.

Bibliography

Avril, François. Manuscript Painting at the Court of France: The Fourteenth Century, 1310-1380. New York: George Braziller, 1978. A survey of Parisian fourteenth century illumination with a good discussion of Pucelle and his relation to French manuscript painting throughout this century. Excellent color plates and a good bibliography. No index.

Deuchler, Florens. “Jean Pucelle Facts and Fictions.” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 29 (1971): 253-256. Reviews the evidence about Pucelle’s life and the attribution of works to this artist. This article is skeptical about the relationship of documentary evidence to firm attribution of The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux to Pucelle.

Ferber, Stanley. “Jean Pucelle and Giovanni Pisano.” Art Bulletin 66 (1984): 65-72. This article presents the case that Pucelle must have studied the sculptured pulpit by Pisano at Pistoia. A good overview of the evidence supporting a trip by Pucelle to Italy and the relationships of Pucelle’s illumination to Italian early Trecento art.

Hamburger, Jeffrey. “The Waddesdon Psalter and the Shop of Jean Pucelle.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 44 (1981): 243-257. A discussion of the Waddesdon Psalter that contains some illumination by Pucelle and other miniature painting by a collaborator in a style close to Pucelle’. The article raises issues about the nature of Pucelle’s workshop.

Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 1967. Pucelle’s work as an illuminator is discussed in the context of the background for French manuscript painting of the late fourteenth century. The book shows Pucelle’s influence throughout the century.

Morand, Kathleen. Jean Pucelle. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1962. This monograph covers Pucelle’s life and career as an illuminator. Because it was published before the discovery of the date of Pucelle’s death, some of the later manuscripts attributed to Pucelle in this book are now seen as works by his followers.

Morand, Kathleen. “Jean Pucelle: A Re-examination of the Evidence.” Burlington Magazine 103 (1961): 206-211. Analyzes in detail the documentary evidence connecting Pucelle with the Billyng Bible, The Belleville Breviary, and The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux. It supports the interpretation of Jean Pucelle as illuminator of The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux.

Nordenfalk, Carl. “Maître Honoré and Maître Pucelle.” Apollo 89 (1964): 356-364. In part a review of Morand’s monograph on Pucelle. As a review essay, it adds perceptive observations and interpretations of Pucelle’s illumination.

Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953. Although this book concentrates on northern Renaissance painting of the fifteenth century, Pucelle’s illumination is discussed from the standpoint of his contribution as an innovator of and precursor to the northern Renaissance style.

Randall, Lilian M. C. “Games and the Passion in Pucelle’s Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux.” Speculum 47 (1972): 246-257. Explains the meaning and relevance of several of the bas-de-page scenes to the iconographic program of the miniature cycle in The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux.

Sandler, Lucy Freeman. “Jean Pucelle and the Lost Miniatures of The Belleville Breviary.” Art Bulletin 66 (1984): 73-96. Reconstructs the three lost full-page miniatures from the important and unusual iconographic cycle illustrating The Belleville Breviary. It provides an edition and translation of the text prefaced to the manuscript that explains this iconographic program.