Fouquet, Jean

(born c. 1420, Tours, Fr.—died c. 1481, Tours) French painter. Little is known about his early life or training, but a trip to Rome in the 1440s exposed him to Italian Renaissance art; upon his return to Tours, Fouquet created a new style, combining the experiments of Italian painting with the exquisite precision of characterization and detail of Flemish art. His most famous works were produced for Charles VII's secretary, Étienne Chevalier: a large Book of Hours with some 60 full-page miniatures and a diptych from Notre-Dame at Melun (c. 1450), with Chevalier's portrait on one panel and a Madonna and Child on the other. The altarpiece of the Pietà in the church at Nouans is his only monumental painting. In 1475 he became royal painter to Louis XI. He broadened the range of miniature painting to include vast panoramas of architecture and landscape and made brilliant use of aerial perspective and colour tonality. He was the preeminent French painter of the 15th century.

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