The early phases of the French school of painting—perhaps it would
be more correct to say of painting in France—present one of the most
interesting problems to the student of art history. It was not really
until the great Exhibition of French Primitives held in Paris in 1904
that any serious attempts were made to construct a history of Early
French painting; but the learned arguments that have been brought
to bear upon the tangled question have so far failed to establish
the existence of an important autochthonous school in the fifteenth
century. It is true that contemporary records mention the names of a
few painters who seem to have enjoyed great repute at the Courts at
which they were employed, but it has been impossible to connect any
notable extant pictures with their names; whilst those other “French”
painters who have left tangible proofs of their activity are almost
without exception of Flemish birth and training. Indeed, most of these
early pictures show no characteristics that may be described as French,
save the types of the faces, which would naturally be taken from the
country where the artists worked.
The difficulty of dealing with the Early French pictures at the Louvre
is considerably increased by the uncertainty of their authorship,
the attributions being in most cases tentative and much disputed.
Throughout we feel the lack of a definite basis for comparative
criticism—the absence of properly authenticated works by the very
masters whose names have been recorded in contemporary documents. One
of the earliest of these masters is Jean Malouel, a Fleming, whose
real name was Malwaele, and who worked in the service of the Dukes of
Burgundy at Dijon, where he died in 1415. To him has been attributed,
without sufficient proof, the tondo of _The Dead Christ supported by
the Eternal Father_ (No. 996) and mourned by the Virgin, St. John and
Angels.
Equally uncertain is the attribution of the _Last Communion and
Martyrdom of St. Denis, First Bishop of Paris_ (No. 995), on which are
seen, against a gold background, in the centre, the Crucified Saviour
and the Eternal Father surrounded by cherubs; on the left, Christ
giving the Communion to the imprisoned bishop, with a praying angel
in the foreground; and on the right, the Decollation of St. Denis and
his two companions, St. Rusticus and St. Eleutherius. An attempt has
been made to identify this interesting picture with one ordered by
Jean-sans-Peur, Duke of Burgundy, from Jean Malouel, and finished after
that master’s death by Henri Bellechose, another Flemish painter, born
in Brabant, who worked at Dijon between 1415 and 1431.
_The Entombment_ (No. 997) is the work of an unknown and presumably
Flemish painter, who shows a certain affinity with the painter of the
famous _Parement d’autel de Narbonne_ (No. 1342 _bis_) of about 1374.
This altar-front is supposed to be by Girard d’Orléans and his son
Jean, under whose name both the _Parement_ and the _Entombment_ were
shown at the Exhibition of French Primitives in 1904. But all these
attributions are largely conjectural.