André Beauneveu
Encyclopedia
André Beauneveu was an Early Netherlandish
sculptor and painter, born in the County of Hainaut
(Valenciennes is today in France), who is best known for his work in the service of the French King Charles V
, and of the Valois Duke, Jean de Berry. His work in all media shows a generally naturalistic and 'sculptural' style, characteristic of the 'Pucellian
revival' of the latter 14th century.
(destroyed). By 1364 he was in Paris, as part of an extensive artistic workshop employed by King Charles V
, who refers to him as our esteemed Andreu Bauneveu our sculptor (see below for details of the work he undertook for the King).
No documentary evidence survives for Beauneveu's whereabouts between 1367 and 1372. It has been suggested, based on comments by his contemporary and fellow Valenciennois Jean Froissart
, that some or all of this period may have been spent in England, possibly working with Jean de Liege in the employ of Philippa of Hainault
. However, there is no independent evidence for such a visit and Beauneveu's name does not appear anywhere in the normally comprehensive Westminster account rolls
for this period.
By 1372, Beauneveu was back in the Low Countries, where he worked for a number of civic and aristocratic patrons.
In 1386 he made the move to Bourges to enter the service of one of the greatest artistic patrons of medieval Europe, the Valois Duke Jean de Berry. Beauneveu was employed as Berry's Superintendent of all Painting and Sculpture and seems to have been particularly associated with the Duke's new 'fairy-tale' castle at Mehun-sur-Yèvre
and with the stained glass and sculptural decorations for the chapel of his palace in Bourges
.
There are no dated references to Beauneveu's life after 1388 but it is generally assumed that he died some time around 1400.Stephen K. Scher, André Beauneveu and Claus Sluter in Gesta, vol.7 (1968), p.12, n.2
s and apostles. The prophets and apostles face each other across 12 openings, giving the appearance of a succession of diptych
s. The figures themselves are painted in grisaille
and both they and the elaborate thrones on which they sit show evidence of a keen interest in realistic three dimensional modelling and foreshortening. The style of the miniatures clearly show the influence of Jean Pucelle
, whose most famous work, the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux
, was in the possession of the Duc de Berry by this time.
royal necropolis, Charles was seeking to assert the authority of the new Valois dynasty as the rightful inheritors of the French crown - his Burgundian cousins began a new dynastic necropolis at Champmol
a decade later. Charles' choice of Beauneveu for this most important of commissions (for which the artist was paid 4,700 gold francs) clearly indicates the Netherlandish artist's status in France at this time. The tombs were designed in the latest style, with brilliant white marble gisants (recumbent effigies
representing the deceased) resting on polished black marble slabs (although the tombs themselves were destroyed in 1793, their form is known from late 17th century drawings commissioned by Roger de Gaignières
. The surviving gisants are still at St Denis but mounted on plain bases). The effigy of the King is shown as if still alive (representacion au vif) and with its highly personalised features it is clearly in a different league from the other surviving effigies of this group, which seem to have been undertaken by other members of Beauneveu's workshop. Records of payments to Beauneveu from the royal coffers cease in 1366 and the project was then completed by other hands, including his contemporary Jean de Liège.
One of the projects in which Beauneveu was engaged between 1374 and 1377 was a funeral monument for the Count of Flanders, Louis of Male. The project was never finished but a statue of St Catherine
that was to form part of the supporting structure survives at the Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk
in Kortrijk
. This lifelike figure, with her gently curving pose, naturalistic features and direct gaze, gives a clear sense of the elegance that Froissart and his contemporaries so admired in Beauneveu's work.
During his time in the employ of Jean de Berry (after 1386), Beauneveu is known to have produced several sculptures for the castle at Mehun and for the chapel of the ducal palace at Bourges. The only surviving fragment from Mehun is the large bearded head which is now in the Musée de Louvre. This probably belonged to one of twelve apostle statues that would have stood against the pillars inside the palace chapel at Mehun (similar to the ones in the Ste Chapelle in Paris). Some have argued that the head is the work of Beauneveu's successor, Jean de Cambrai, though the weight of opinion generally favours Beauneveu or his workshop.
The work that Beauneveu carried out on the sculptural and painted decorations at Mehun was so highly regarded by his contemporaries that Jean de Berry's brother, Philip of Burgundy
, sent his own court artists Claus Sluter
and Jean de Beaumetz
to visit the building site in 1393.
Several of the smaller prophet figures from Bourges also survive, dispersed amongst public and private collections. Stylistic differences between these figures serve as a useful reminder that northern European sculpture of this period was normally a team effort. Workshop masters like Beauneveu would set the standard and dictate the overall style but on any large project, one can usually distinguish the presence of multiple distinct craftsmen.
, Beauneveu was also supplying paintings for the Alderman's hall in his home town of Valenciennes as well as undertaking various commissions for the town councils of Ypres
and Mechelen
, though none of these works nor any other panel paintings by the artist survive.
In the early 20th century, the newfound interest in Gothic art and the obsession with attributing anonymous works to named artists led some authors to cite Beauneveu as the creator of numerous late 14th century artworks, including the Hakendover Altarpiece and the Parement de Narbonne
. The English bibliophile S.C. Cockerell even claimed that Beauneveu had painted the famous 'Westminster' portrait of Richard II
, based on a supposed similarity between that work and the Berry Psalter. For a period, Beauneveu's supposed oeuvre was a pawn in the gentlemanly disputes (played out in the pages of the Burlington Magazine) between Cockerell, Martin Conway and Roger Fry
over the origins of the French, Netherlandish and English 'schools' of late medieval art. These attributions were however based on nothing more than superficial stylistic resemblances which could equally have applied to almost any work of the International Gothic
period. The fact that all these speculative attributions have since been dismissed in the light of more careful scholarship shows the dangers of trying to apply traditional techniques of connoiseurship to the art of this period.
Some of the few examples of Beauneveu's large-scale painting that can be safely attributed on the basis of documentary evidence, as well as stylistic considerations, are the stained glass windows he designed for Jean de Berry's 'Sainte Chapelle' (the palace chapel built in Bourges in emulation of Louis IX
's Ste Chapelle in Paris). Although the Duke's chapel was destroyed during the French Revolution its appearance is known from an 18th century oil-painting, which is now in the Musée du Berry in Bourges along with various sculptural fragments from the chapel. Some of the windows survived the destruction and were subsequently installed in the crypt of Bourges Cathedral. These spectacular grisaille panels show a series of naturalistic standing prophets, set within microarchitectural niches, which would have echoed the real sculpted prophets mounted in niches on the outside of the building.
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
sculptor and painter, born in the County of Hainaut
County of Hainaut
The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....
(Valenciennes is today in France), who is best known for his work in the service of the French King Charles V
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
, and of the Valois Duke, Jean de Berry. His work in all media shows a generally naturalistic and 'sculptural' style, characteristic of the 'Pucellian
Jean Pucelle
Jean Pucelle was a Parisian Gothic-era manuscript illuminator, active between 1320 and 1350. His style is characterized by delicate figures rendered in grisaille, accented with touches of color....
revival' of the latter 14th century.
Biographical details
As with all northern European artists of this period, reliable biographical information about Beauneveu is extremely sparse, being mainly limited to a few mentions in the financial accounts of his patrons. The earliest documentary reference to "Master Andrew the Painter" (assumed to be Beauneveu) appears in the accounts of Duchess Yolande de Bar in 1359, where he is recorded as working on the decoration of a chapel in her castle at NieppeNieppe
-Points of interests:*A local historic museum*Château de Nieppe - features a treasue legend, its part and a centennial tree*War cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:** Nieppe Communal Cemetery** Pont-D'Achelles Military Cemetery...
(destroyed). By 1364 he was in Paris, as part of an extensive artistic workshop employed by King Charles V
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
, who refers to him as our esteemed Andreu Bauneveu our sculptor (see below for details of the work he undertook for the King).
No documentary evidence survives for Beauneveu's whereabouts between 1367 and 1372. It has been suggested, based on comments by his contemporary and fellow Valenciennois Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart , often referred to in English as John Froissart, was one of the most important chroniclers of medieval France. For centuries, Froissart's Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric revival of the 14th century Kingdom of England and France...
, that some or all of this period may have been spent in England, possibly working with Jean de Liege in the employ of Philippa of Hainault
Philippa of Hainault
Philippa of Hainault, or, Philippe de Hainaut was the Queen consort of King Edward III of England. Edward, Duke of Guyenne, her future husband, promised in 1326 to marry her within the following two years...
. However, there is no independent evidence for such a visit and Beauneveu's name does not appear anywhere in the normally comprehensive Westminster account rolls
Pipe Rolls
The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records kept by...
for this period.
By 1372, Beauneveu was back in the Low Countries, where he worked for a number of civic and aristocratic patrons.
In 1386 he made the move to Bourges to enter the service of one of the greatest artistic patrons of medieval Europe, the Valois Duke Jean de Berry. Beauneveu was employed as Berry's Superintendent of all Painting and Sculpture and seems to have been particularly associated with the Duke's new 'fairy-tale' castle at Mehun-sur-Yèvre
Château de Mehun-sur-Yèvre
The Château de Mehun-sur-Yèvre is a castle in the town of Mehun-sur-Yèvre in the départment of Cher, France.The castle is classified as a Monument historique since 1840.-History:...
and with the stained glass and sculptural decorations for the chapel of his palace in Bourges
Bourges
Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...
.
There are no dated references to Beauneveu's life after 1388 but it is generally assumed that he died some time around 1400.Stephen K. Scher, André Beauneveu and Claus Sluter in Gesta, vol.7 (1968), p.12, n.2
Manuscript illumination
One of the few firmly attributable works by the hand of Beauneveu is the Psalter of Jean de Berry (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. fr. 13091), which is mentioned as being the work of the artist in a 1402 inventory of the ducal treasury. Beauneveu's contribution to this illuminated manuscript was a series of 24 full-page miniatures of enthroned prophetProphet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
s and apostles. The prophets and apostles face each other across 12 openings, giving the appearance of a succession of diptych
Diptych
A diptych di "two" + ptychē "fold") is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge. Devices of this form were quite popular in the ancient world, wax tablets being coated with wax on inner faces, for recording notes and for measuring time and direction.In Late Antiquity, ivory diptychs with...
s. The figures themselves are painted in grisaille
Grisaille
Grisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range, like the Andrea del Sarto fresco...
and both they and the elaborate thrones on which they sit show evidence of a keen interest in realistic three dimensional modelling and foreshortening. The style of the miniatures clearly show the influence of Jean Pucelle
Jean Pucelle
Jean Pucelle was a Parisian Gothic-era manuscript illuminator, active between 1320 and 1350. His style is characterized by delicate figures rendered in grisaille, accented with touches of color....
, whose most famous work, the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux
Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux
The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux is an illuminated Book of hours. It was created between 1324 and 1328 by Jean Pucelle for Jeanne d'Evreux, the third wife of Charles IV of France. Adolphe de Rothschild of Geneva acquired the book at the 19th century. On his death in 1900, it was left to his nephew...
, was in the possession of the Duc de Berry by this time.
Sculpture
In 1365 Beauneveu was commissioned by King Charles V to sculpt four marble effigies for new tombs for his paternal grandparents, his father and himself. These tombs were destined for the Abbey of St Denis, where the French kings were traditionally buried. By creating spectacular tombs for his immediate ancestors as well as himself and placing them at the heart of the CapetianCapetian dynasty
The Capetian dynasty , also known as the House of France, is the largest and oldest European royal house, consisting of the descendants of King Hugh Capet of France in the male line. Hugh Capet himself was a cognatic descendant of the Carolingians and the Merovingians, earlier rulers of France...
royal necropolis, Charles was seeking to assert the authority of the new Valois dynasty as the rightful inheritors of the French crown - his Burgundian cousins began a new dynastic necropolis at Champmol
Champmol
The Chartreuse de Champmol, formally the Chartreuse de la Sainte-Trinité de Champmol, was a Carthusian monastery on the outskirts of Dijon, which is now in France, but in the 15th century was the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy...
a decade later. Charles' choice of Beauneveu for this most important of commissions (for which the artist was paid 4,700 gold francs) clearly indicates the Netherlandish artist's status in France at this time. The tombs were designed in the latest style, with brilliant white marble gisants (recumbent effigies
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
representing the deceased) resting on polished black marble slabs (although the tombs themselves were destroyed in 1793, their form is known from late 17th century drawings commissioned by Roger de Gaignières
François Roger de Gaignières
François Roger de Gaignières , French genealogist, antiquary and collector, was the grandson of a merchant at Lyon and the son of Aimé de Gaignières, secretary to the Count of Harcourt, a member of the Elbeuf branch of the House of Guise. In the late 1660s, he was named écuyer to Louis Joseph,...
. The surviving gisants are still at St Denis but mounted on plain bases). The effigy of the King is shown as if still alive (representacion au vif) and with its highly personalised features it is clearly in a different league from the other surviving effigies of this group, which seem to have been undertaken by other members of Beauneveu's workshop. Records of payments to Beauneveu from the royal coffers cease in 1366 and the project was then completed by other hands, including his contemporary Jean de Liège.
One of the projects in which Beauneveu was engaged between 1374 and 1377 was a funeral monument for the Count of Flanders, Louis of Male. The project was never finished but a statue of St Catherine
Catherine of Alexandria
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius...
that was to form part of the supporting structure survives at the Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk
Church of Our Lady (Kortrijk)
The Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk was built in 1199 established by count Baldwin I of Constantinople. The church is situated in the historic city centre of Kortrijk.- History :...
in Kortrijk
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ; , ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders...
. This lifelike figure, with her gently curving pose, naturalistic features and direct gaze, gives a clear sense of the elegance that Froissart and his contemporaries so admired in Beauneveu's work.
During his time in the employ of Jean de Berry (after 1386), Beauneveu is known to have produced several sculptures for the castle at Mehun and for the chapel of the ducal palace at Bourges. The only surviving fragment from Mehun is the large bearded head which is now in the Musée de Louvre. This probably belonged to one of twelve apostle statues that would have stood against the pillars inside the palace chapel at Mehun (similar to the ones in the Ste Chapelle in Paris). Some have argued that the head is the work of Beauneveu's successor, Jean de Cambrai, though the weight of opinion generally favours Beauneveu or his workshop.
The work that Beauneveu carried out on the sculptural and painted decorations at Mehun was so highly regarded by his contemporaries that Jean de Berry's brother, Philip of Burgundy
Philip the Bold
Philip the Bold , also Philip II, Duke of Burgundy , was the fourth and youngest son of King John II of France and his wife, Bonne of Luxembourg. By his marriage to Margaret III, Countess of Flanders, he also became Count Philip II of Flanders, Count Philip IV of Artois and Count-Palatine Philip IV...
, sent his own court artists Claus Sluter
Claus Sluter
Claus Sluter was a sculptor of Dutch origin. He was the most important northern European sculptor of his age and is considered a pioneer of the "northern realism" of the Early Netherlandish painting that came into full flower with the work of Jan van Eyck and others in the next generation.Sluter...
and Jean de Beaumetz
Jean de Beaumetz
Jean de Beaumetz is recorded to have been "painter and valet" to Philip the Hardy, for whom he painted numerous works, and decorated, among other chapels, that of the Castle of Argilli, in Burgundy. Some of his mural paintings are still preserved at château de Germolles. Jean de Beaumetz was...
to visit the building site in 1393.
Several of the smaller prophet figures from Bourges also survive, dispersed amongst public and private collections. Stylistic differences between these figures serve as a useful reminder that northern European sculpture of this period was normally a team effort. Workshop masters like Beauneveu would set the standard and dictate the overall style but on any large project, one can usually distinguish the presence of multiple distinct craftsmen.
Painting and stained glass
Archives show that during the 1370s, whilst working on the funereal sculptures for the Count of FlandersCount of Flanders
The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the position by the French revolutionaries in 1790....
, Beauneveu was also supplying paintings for the Alderman's hall in his home town of Valenciennes as well as undertaking various commissions for the town councils of Ypres
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...
and Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
, though none of these works nor any other panel paintings by the artist survive.
In the early 20th century, the newfound interest in Gothic art and the obsession with attributing anonymous works to named artists led some authors to cite Beauneveu as the creator of numerous late 14th century artworks, including the Hakendover Altarpiece and the Parement de Narbonne
Master of the Parement
The Master of the Parement of Narbonne, often referred to more briefly as the Master of the Parement or Parement Master is the name given to an artist of uncertain identity who flourished in France in the late 14th century and early 15th century. He belongs to the period of medieval painting...
. The English bibliophile S.C. Cockerell even claimed that Beauneveu had painted the famous 'Westminster' portrait of Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
, based on a supposed similarity between that work and the Berry Psalter. For a period, Beauneveu's supposed oeuvre was a pawn in the gentlemanly disputes (played out in the pages of the Burlington Magazine) between Cockerell, Martin Conway and Roger Fry
Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry was an English artist and art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism...
over the origins of the French, Netherlandish and English 'schools' of late medieval art. These attributions were however based on nothing more than superficial stylistic resemblances which could equally have applied to almost any work of the International Gothic
International Gothic
International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...
period. The fact that all these speculative attributions have since been dismissed in the light of more careful scholarship shows the dangers of trying to apply traditional techniques of connoiseurship to the art of this period.
Some of the few examples of Beauneveu's large-scale painting that can be safely attributed on the basis of documentary evidence, as well as stylistic considerations, are the stained glass windows he designed for Jean de Berry's 'Sainte Chapelle' (the palace chapel built in Bourges in emulation of Louis IX
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
's Ste Chapelle in Paris). Although the Duke's chapel was destroyed during the French Revolution its appearance is known from an 18th century oil-painting, which is now in the Musée du Berry in Bourges along with various sculptural fragments from the chapel. Some of the windows survived the destruction and were subsequently installed in the crypt of Bourges Cathedral. These spectacular grisaille panels show a series of naturalistic standing prophets, set within microarchitectural niches, which would have echoed the real sculpted prophets mounted in niches on the outside of the building.