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The Coronation of John II, miniature cut from a Grandes chroniques de France [Paris, c.1400-1410].
Details
Perrin Rémiet (fl.1386-1428)
The Coronation of John II, miniature cut from a Grandes chroniques de France [Paris, c.1400-1410].
A charming miniature from a manuscript of the Grandes chroniques de France illuminated by Perrin Rémiet, whose richly illuminated copies of secular texts made him a favourite of the court of Charles VI.
Miniature: 84 x 84mm on a cutting: 192mm x 266mm, depicting the coronation of John II ‘the Good’ of France, shown beside his second wife Joan, on 26 September 1350, the miniature above a six-line illuminated initial with extended border flourishing, two columns of text, 27 lines on verso (central vertical crease, prickings and remains of string where previously used as a wrapper, small losses at both bottom corners). Mounted. Provenance: Christie’s, 27 June 1979, lot 148 (part).
The first iteration of the Grandes chroniques de France – a milestone in the development of French vernacular prose historiography – emerged from the abbey of St Denis near Paris at the end of the 13th century in response to the prevailing royal and aristocratic taste for texts that presented models from ancient history as a guide for personal self-development at the same time as emphasising the line of dynastic descent to the incumbent Valois rulers. In the first instance, the Chroniques covered the history of France from its foundation after the Fall of Troy to the death of Philip Augustus in 1223, while subsequent recensions continued the chronicle towards the modern day. The British Library holds a copy of the Chroniques (Royal MS 16 G VI) made for John II of France before 1350, while he was Duke of Normandy; this copy ends with the death of Saint Louis in 1270. Multiple copies were also made for Charles VI (1369-1422) and his uncle, the Duc de Berry (1340-1416).
Perrin (Pierre) Rémiet, documented in Paris from 1386 to 1428, was a favourite of the court of Charles VI during Paris’s greatest period as a centre of illumination (see François Avril, 'Trois manuscrits napolitains des collections de Charles V et du duc de Berry', Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 127, 1969, pp.291-328). His style is characterised by the use of a crisp black line to outline the figures, to define the curls of their hair and their large, deep-set eyes as well as the drapery; his miniatures are populated with the type of naturalistically modelled figures set against patterned backgrounds.
The Coronation of John II, miniature cut from a Grandes chroniques de France [Paris, c.1400-1410].
A charming miniature from a manuscript of the Grandes chroniques de France illuminated by Perrin Rémiet, whose richly illuminated copies of secular texts made him a favourite of the court of Charles VI.
Miniature: 84 x 84mm on a cutting: 192mm x 266mm, depicting the coronation of John II ‘the Good’ of France, shown beside his second wife Joan, on 26 September 1350, the miniature above a six-line illuminated initial with extended border flourishing, two columns of text, 27 lines on verso (central vertical crease, prickings and remains of string where previously used as a wrapper, small losses at both bottom corners). Mounted. Provenance: Christie’s, 27 June 1979, lot 148 (part).
The first iteration of the Grandes chroniques de France – a milestone in the development of French vernacular prose historiography – emerged from the abbey of St Denis near Paris at the end of the 13th century in response to the prevailing royal and aristocratic taste for texts that presented models from ancient history as a guide for personal self-development at the same time as emphasising the line of dynastic descent to the incumbent Valois rulers. In the first instance, the Chroniques covered the history of France from its foundation after the Fall of Troy to the death of Philip Augustus in 1223, while subsequent recensions continued the chronicle towards the modern day. The British Library holds a copy of the Chroniques (Royal MS 16 G VI) made for John II of France before 1350, while he was Duke of Normandy; this copy ends with the death of Saint Louis in 1270. Multiple copies were also made for Charles VI (1369-1422) and his uncle, the Duc de Berry (1340-1416).
Perrin (Pierre) Rémiet, documented in Paris from 1386 to 1428, was a favourite of the court of Charles VI during Paris’s greatest period as a centre of illumination (see François Avril, 'Trois manuscrits napolitains des collections de Charles V et du duc de Berry', Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 127, 1969, pp.291-328). His style is characterised by the use of a crisp black line to outline the figures, to define the curls of their hair and their large, deep-set eyes as well as the drapery; his miniatures are populated with the type of naturalistically modelled figures set against patterned backgrounds.
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