Life
Jean Fouquet was born in Tours. Little is known of his life, but it is certain that he was in Italy before 1447, where he executed a portrait of Pope Eugene IV who died in that year (the portrait survives only in much later copies). Upon his return to France, while retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during his period in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, forming the basis of early 15th-century French art and becoming the founder of an important new school. He worked for the French court, including Charles VII, the treasurer Étienne Chevalier, and the chancellor Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins. Near the end of his career, he became court painter to Louis XI. His work can be associated with the French court's attempt to solidify French national identity in the wake of its long struggle with England in the Hundred Years' War.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
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—Bible: New Testament, Luke 12:15.
“That man is to be pitied who cannot enjoy social intercourse without eating and drinking. The lowest orders, it is true, cannot imagine a cheerful assembly without the attractions of the table, and this reflection alone should induce all who aim at intellectual culture to endeavor to avoid placing the choicest phases of social life on such a basis.”
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“we two
With life forever old yet new,
Changed not in kind but in degree,
The instant made eternity—”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)