The Mystery of the Melun Diptych
In our past efforts, we discovered Caravaggio's "moving hand," ascertained the composition at an atomic level of Vermeer's "pearl earring," and figured out why Art experts fell for the "zombie forgeries." Today, bluehammer and I bring to your attention the mystery of the Melun Diptych.
A couple of months ago, bluehammer introduced me to the two paintings known as The Melun Diptych. I had never seen them before. My initial reaction was to tilt my head to the side like a dog trying to understand French.
Who is that lady? Why was she painted like that? Most importantly, why does The Melun Diptych—painted in 1452—look like it could have graced the cover of Rocket! Magazine in 1950 or could illustrate a graphic novel published tomorrow. How did the artist arrive at this ethereal Science Fiction look 564 years ago?
Those are our mysteries.
About The Melun Diptych and Its Artist.
Jean Fouquet painted The Melun Diptych around 1452 in the Gothic style. He was the court painter for Charles VII and Louis XI and was a master of many arts, including portraits, miniatures, medallions, sculptural design, large pieces such as The Melun Diptych and especially manuscript illuminations. He traveled to Italy to study with the Italian masters.
The left or, ahem, normal panel depicts King Charles VII’s treasurer (the person who commissioned the painting) kneeling next to Saint Stephen, who is holding a book and a rock, the latter representing his martyrdom by stoning. This panel shows a keen eye for perspective, and this evidences Fouquet’s visit to Italy to view their Art. The panel is normal looking, except that it was unbelievably well done for 1452.
The claim of “unbelievably well done” for the time cries out for some perspective. Jean Fouquet painted The Melun Diptych the same year that Leonardo da Vinci was born and twenty-five years before Michelangelo’s birth. They’d just started construction on Machu Picchu, and Galileo’s first discovery would occur about 130 years later.
That left panel is almost unbelievable. The right panel mocks the believable.
The right panel depicts the Madonna and Child surrounded by brightly colored red and blue Cherubim. Wikipedia describes the Madonna and Child as pale, but we think it is more than that. Some say the colors of red, white and blue were meant to represent the “heraldic colors of the king.” As for the Virgin, it
is believed to be an idealized portrait of Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII, who died two years earlier. Sorel was considered by many at the time to be ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ and therefore an obvious choice … to model the Virgin.Others suggest that the Virgin might have been modeled after the patron’s wife, Catherine Bude, as the diptych was hung next to her tomb. Both of these ladies died at an early age and at about the same time, shortly before Fouquet painted The Melun Diptych. Still others claim that there may be a missing painting, making the entire threesome a triptych. This is a minority opinion.
Is It Proof that Earth Was Visited by Aliens?
Some people believe that our planet has already been visited by aliens. They look for proof wherever they can find it. Here is our artist's conception of the possibly "missing panel" of The Melun “Triptych”:
The image on the right is the work of Science Fiction Hall of Famer Frank R. Paul.
We took this brief (but fun) detour simply to highlight the “otherworldly” appearance of the paintings. Now, let’s get back to our investigation.
Does It Look Like Other Madonna and Child Paintings from that Era?
Nope. That would be the simple answer to our mystery. But thanks to the google, we've looked at over one thousand paintings of the Madonna and Child from the 13th to the 16th Century to find something—anything—similar. An exemplar or a precursor may exist, or may have existed, but we haven't found it. This may be the closest in terms of subject, ability and elan:
That’s the Wilton Diptych, and it was painted by an unknown artist around 1395. Nobody in it appears to be made of marble, but it does have some Gothic as well as otherworldly attributes, including the bizarre background and the brightly colored angels.
Italian master Piero della Francesca painted the holy as especially white-colored in his Baptism of Christ (c. 1445-1460). His Madonna della Misericordia (c. 1448) is an otherworldly giant. In his travels in Italy, Fouquet was believed to have met with Piero della Francesca, and that could explain the very pale-skinned holy images.
In our searches, having looked at a lot of ugly baby Jesuses, from the Byzantine to the Baroque, this is as close as we’ve come to The Melun Diptych. The Wilton Diptych and della Francesca’s paintings each have attributes that can be found in The Melun Diptych, but their “wholes” do not equal the futuristic final impression that Jean Fouquet was able to render.
So, what was Jean Fouquet doing?
Could the Artist Have Painted (or been inspired by) a Marble Statue?
That's what I believed when I first saw the right panel of the diptych. There are marble statues of the Madonna and Child that look similar to The Melun Diptych, at least in terms of color and texture. Here, let me give you some examples:
Michelangelo at left; Regnault in center; Diptych without background on the right.
Robert Baldwin is a professor of Art History at Connecticut College. He published a commentary about Fouquet’s Melun Diptych on the internet, which included these remarks:
“[Fouquet] also applied an Early Renaissance, hyper three-dimensionality to the figures, throne, jewels in the ‘Gothic’ panel. Instead of angel silhouettes forming a flattened, otherworldly background, Fouquet’s red and blue cherubim stand out with sharply delineated volumes more like polished marble. In this way, he remade the disembodied forms of late medieval visionary art into a Renaissance visual experience grounded in a tangible physical reality.”(emphasis added). We think the professor is fishing in the right pond!
During our research we came across the best evidence of this proposition. The tomb of Agnes Sorel includes a marble sculpture of her. Does she look familiar? Not only do we have a marble likeness of our Melun Diptych as far as texture and color, but a match in terms of facial features, including the heavy lidded eyes, the high (and rather large) forehead, the largish nose, and the chin. The tomb sculpture even includes a beaded crown with the same ringlet or “frontlet” underneath and to the front:
But Here’s the Curveball (and There’s Always a Curveball)!
It can’t be this easy, and it’s not. The paintings were placed near the tomb of Catherine Bude, the wife of the patron. It would make sense to use her likeness for the Virgin Mary, versus the mistress of the King, no? This is supposedly a picture of Catherine Bude, kneeling between her mother and sister:
There is a distinct resemblance between her and the Madonna in The Melun Diptych, including the heavy-lidded eyes, the high forehead and the pointy chin, but in this painting she is shown in an act of devotion. Agnes Sorel, on the other hand, was depicted like this in print and paint:
Our research discovered that Agnes Sorel was known for her fashion sense, including the habit of leaving one breast exposed while she walked about the King’s court. She bore the King three children while at court from the age of 20 to 28, so she had a ready excuse. (The painting of Agnes Sorel above was done in the 1500s, long after Sorel and Fouquet had died.).
Would It Be “Christanly”?
The psychology, we believe, favors Agnes Sorel as the model for Fouquet’s Virgin versus Catherine Bude. While it was fashionable to have your picture painted standing next to martyred Saints in front of the Virgin, would it have been “Christianly” to have your likeness used for the Madonna that would adorn your own tomb? Does that seem a bit presumptuous to you? Other royal figures, even mistresses, had their faces used as models for Mary, but those paintings weren’t destined to hang next to the tombs of the models.
Professor Robert Baldwin notes that pinpointing Agnes Sorel as the model for the Virgin in The Melun Diptych is “speculation as no visual or documentary evidence proves or disproves this assertion.” He observes that Catherine Bude is a candidate according to some scholars. Although the professor acknowledges that it is an open question, he seems to lean in favor of Agnes Sorel. You can see for yourself.
Professor Robert Baldwin notes that pinpointing Agnes Sorel as the model for the Virgin in The Melun Diptych is “speculation as no visual or documentary evidence proves or disproves this assertion.” He observes that Catherine Bude is a candidate according to some scholars. Although the professor acknowledges that it is an open question, he seems to lean in favor of Agnes Sorel. You can see for yourself.
A Conversation with Professor Baldwin.
I contacted Professor Baldwin, and he proved to be as knowledgeable as he was generous with his time. In our conversation, the professor noted that it was not surprising to find the Virgin in tombs, as she "protects Christians," while Christ was usually seen in Last Judgments, “sending people to Hell.” He also noted that painting a woman as the Virgin was "the highest tribute" one could pay to her.
Marble Versus Snow.
Professor Baldwin introduced me to the Romance of the Rose, which was "the number one or two book in the late Middle Ages," possibly only behind the Bible. The book was a “courtly encyclopedia,” and it prescribed that snow white was the color of beauty, not so much marmoreal (marble-like) white. "Ancient Greek vases showed women as white figures, men as black."The professor went on to note:
“While the marmoreal whiteness of Fouquet’s Madonna may have been partially inspired by the tomb statue of Sorel, her smooth, white features make more sense as a conventional metaphor for the beauty of the courtly lady which was routinely praised for its snow-white, swan-white, and marble-white complexion in late medieval and Renaissance literature. In this sense, Fouquet’s Madonna/Sorel is so white not because the artist slavishly copied a statue but because he deployed a conventional metaphor for aesthetic, moral, and spiritual perfection.”
The professor graciously provided a virtual library of literature from the middle ages to prove his point about the use of snow- and swan-white skin to exemplify beauty and chastity. His last email to me stated that “the idea that Fouquet copied a marble statue to get his marble look is in my view not convincing.” (Underline in original).
A very important bit of wisdom from the Professor was that "either/or" distinctions are frequently wrong. This is especially true when two or more ends can be served while doing one thing. I believe that Fouquet was inspired by the marble statue of Agnes Sorel in painting his Virgin, and he wanted to show beauty, and he wanted to show an ethereal look. We have put the images side by side and will let you decide:
What Looks Sci-Fi to Us, Today, Was Just “Fashion” Back Then?
It is true that the puffy shirts of Saint Stephen and the patron were fashionable at the time. Also, being a pale beauty was desirable, and women, for some reason, plucked their forehead hair to give themselves more forehead! It is also quite likely that the ringlet underneath the Virgin’s crown is a “frontlet,” used to hold the crown on her head.
Fouquet’s Madonna appears to have full lips, but he has painted her with lipstick covering only a part of them. This gives the Virgin what looks like rosebud lips. Was this also fashionable at the time?
But, there’s pale, and then there’s marble. These are marble-colored immortals. Moreover, although the other fashion statements do tend to show a futuristic look, even if they did not exist in the painting, it would still seem otherworldly. In other words, the stylish French fashion of the day does play a role, but doesn’t come close to explaining what we see.
Fouquet’s Madonna appears to have full lips, but he has painted her with lipstick covering only a part of them. This gives the Virgin what looks like rosebud lips. Was this also fashionable at the time?
But, there’s pale, and then there’s marble. These are marble-colored immortals. Moreover, although the other fashion statements do tend to show a futuristic look, even if they did not exist in the painting, it would still seem otherworldly. In other words, the stylish French fashion of the day does play a role, but doesn’t come close to explaining what we see.
Conclusion.
And he did.
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Resources.
This piece will be published on the daily kos website. We wanted to place additional sources here for our readers. Instead of a boring bibliography, we have decided to do this by category, starting with the mystery of Agnes Sorel.
THE DEATH OF AGNES SOREL
While pregnant with her fourth child, Sorel traveled to met with King Charles on the battlefield, but she died mysteriously.
It was thought that she may have been poisoned, as she had enemies at court who were jealous of her influence over the King. One of these was the King's son, the eventual Louis XI.
In 2005, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, a massive research complex with large-scale radiation equipment and other imagery and testing devices, announced that they had arrived at some interesting findings in the case of Agnes Sorel. They had disinterred her body and run tests, concluding that she had extremely elevated Mercury levels in her body. She could have been poisoned with Mercury!
But, it's never that easy. There's always a curveball.
Mercury was commonly used for cosmetics and some medicines during the Middle Ages. In fact, the researchers found evidence of parasites in her body which may have been the reason she may have been "treated" with mercury.
THE DEATH MASK OF AGNES SOREL
When researching this mystery, I needed to be sure that the statue of Agnes Sorel was, indeed, a statue of Agnes Sorel. Many bloggers who have visited her tomb in Loches, France have posted pictures of the statue like the pictures I have reproduced in the piece. Wiki commons and PBS have similar pictures attributed to the tomb-side statue of Agnes Sorel.
The final proof I needed was a reproduction provided by the European Synchrotron. They took pieces of skull of Agnes Sorel and superimposed them over the face from that very same statue. See the picture below. This is not a true "death mask," but it is as close as we can come to one. Below is the reproduction provided by the European Synchrotron. Case closed!
COULD THERE BE AN ART RESTORATION ISSUE?
Could be. Are we seeing the colors intended by the master Jean Fouquet? The paintings are kept in different museums. That means different art restorers probably worked on them. We have seen, in our journeys, how art restoration can literally turn a brown sky blue:
When we looked into the mystery of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, art restoration played a key role. Remember that? Vermeer's pearl earring actually looked goldish-hued until a restoration in 1994 established that the great Dutch Master had intended the "pearl" to have a silver finish.
Moreover, the change over time figured into our mystery. Vermeer's earring started out looking silver, then, gradually, over centuries, arrived at a gold-like color. Sometime during that transition from silver to gold, the painting got its name, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
So, it is possible that the marble-hued skin of the Madonna and Child in The Melun Diptych results from earlier art restorations. But we think this is not very likely.
I’ve attempted to contact both museums housing the two panels of the diptych, but they have not, as yet, responded to my inquiries. If they do, I will provide an update. I do believe that we are seeing the colors that Jean Fouquet intended when he painted the originals more than 500 years ago. The paintings are too valuable to not have had the best care through the years.
THE MELUN DIPTYCH IS (SOMEWHAT) ON DISPLAY
As mentioned in the article, the medallion crafted by Jean Fouquet with his name and self-portrait is on display at the Louvre. It is thought to be the first ever self-potrait of the kind by a famous artist.The left (or normal) panel of the diptych is on display at the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
The right (or bizarre) panel of the diptych is, unfortunately, not on display at the present time. The museum in which it is housed,the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium, will be undergoing renovations until 2018. The museum last loaned the panel to the Prado, but for the current time, has adopted a no-loan policy for its artwork.
LITERATURE FROM PROFESSOR ROBERT BALDWIN
Professor Baldwin made the point that white skin was especially prized during the Middle Ages in poetry and literature. He gave a number of examples, including the following:
CHASING DOWN THE PICTURE OF CATHERINE BUDE
I wanted to find out as much as possible about Catherine Bude, as she could be the model for the Virgin in The Melun Diptych. I especially wanted to know when she died and what she looked like. So, after reading the articles about her, I also looked for images of her on google. That's when I came across the painting supposedly rendered by the Master of the Dreux Bude Triptych.
(The Dreux Bude Triptych is a painting that was done by an unknown artist for Dreux Bude, who was Catherine Bude's father.)
I tracked down information about the painting of Catherine Bude at the Nordonart website. It described what there is of the provenance of the painting and what happened (or didn't happen) at its Sotheby's auction in 2012.
The painting of Catherine Bude does bear a resemblance to the Virgin in The Melun Diptych. Professor Baldwin noted that it was not impossible that Agnes Sorel and Catherine Bude looked similar to one another. (I did not ask him further, and I should have, but it may be that the beauty conventions of the time found the heavy-lidded, high forehead lady particularly beautiful.).
QUESTIONS FROM BLUEHAMMER
1) Why the completely exposed breast? Which seems to have this rosy point that corresponds to the rosy point on the infant Jesus's cheek? This doesn't seem to be a common trope in paintings from this era. Why expose the Virgin, when most paintings swathe her in so many clothes? And, for that matter, the infant Jesus's nakedness also seems to be harsh, clinical.
2) I look at the facial expressions, the bodily language, and this is a Madonna who is holding the child away from her, even as the breast is offered. I see the facial expressions on the Virgin and the child as disgust, frustration, anger. Is this just my point of view so many centuries later?
3) The angels .... Well, this seems to be more a depiction of hell than heaven. They all seem so angry as well, or maybe judgmental.
4) There seems to be a confrontation here, not mercy, not maternal love. Is this just my uninformed eye?
5) All these things make this painting so powerful. That particular painting, not the panel on the right. But do we have to view these together to get the full import? We see the judgmental males on the left. Have they 'set up' the conditions for the panel on the right? These are my questions right now.
WEARING A CROWN.
An intriguing fact learned in our quest was that Agnes Sorel refused to wear a crown during her tenure as the King's mistress. She was offered her own title, but she refused that as well. Yet, when she died, she was depicted both in her tomb sculpture and in The Melun Diptych wearing a crown. Was that coincidence?
THE INSCRIPTION ON THE BACK OF THE RIGHT PANEL
The right or "otherworldly" panel has an inscription on the back of it. The inscription claims that Etienne Chevalier, the patron who commissioned the painting (and the person seen kneeling next to Saint Stephen in the left panel), made a vow to Agnes Sorel, who lay on her deathbed, that he would see that this painting was done. Unfortunately, the inscription, although notarized, dates back to only the 18th Century.
AT LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON SEES A PAINTING OF A SCULPTURE
Noah Charney, in his Secret History of Art blog, identifies the painting of the Virgin as a veritable "stone sculpture":
"The painting itself is strikingly modern. The skin tone of the Madonna and child has been bleached into a marble-like whiteness with none of the warmth of humanity. This is a painting of an impossible stone sculpture, complete with gravity-defying breasts slipping out of loosely-fitted blue leather garments."
That's what I saw when I first encountered The Melun Diptych. What we have added to the discussion is to point out the particular sculpture that inspired Jean Fouquet.
