Jean Colombe

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Miniature Jean Colombes from the Très Riches Heures
King Philip II of France with his army on their departure for the Third Crusade ; below sinking of an enemy ship. Illumination by Jean Colombes in the Passages d'outremer des Sébastien Mamerot in the manuscript made in 1474/1475 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France , Fr. 5594, fol. 211r

Jean Colombe (* around 1430 , † around 1493 ) was a French illuminator who can be traced back to Bourges from 1463 . He was probably the brother of the sculptor Michel Colombe . Jean Colombe was among other things in the service of Queen Charlotte of Savoy and from 1486 is also mentioned as court miniator of Duke Charles I of Savoy . The Histoire de Merlin , which is now divided between Paris and Brussels, originates from this period . It was started by the master of Charles de France and completed by Colombe, probably also on behalf of the Savoyard duke. Jean Colombe had two sons, Philibert and François, of whom the elder, Philbert, took over the house in Bourges in 1493/94. François must have died before May 15, 1512 while he was working with his uncle Michel Colombe on the tomb of the late Savoyard Duke Philibert of Savoy in Brou on behalf of Margaret of Austria.

Colombe illuminated the work of Sébastien Mamerot for Louis de Laval around 1475 : Les Passages d'oultre mer du noble Godefroy de Bouillon, du bon roy Saint Loys et de plusieurs vertueux princes . Around 1472 he had already illuminated the histoire des neuf preux et des neuf preuses , also edited by Mamerot, together with the master of Viennese Mamerot named after this manuscript, also for Louis de Laval. Around 1485, on behalf of the Duke of Savoy, he completed the famous manuscript of the Très Riches Heures , which the Limburg brothers had begun for the Duc de Berry until 1416. For the same client he completed the Apocalypse of the Dukes of Savoy between 1485/89 , which Jean Bapteur and Péronet Lamy began between 1428 and 1434.

One of the most important works by Colombes is the book of hours for Louis de Laval, begun around 1469/70 and completed ten years later . He succeeds Jean Fouquet without reaching his mastery. Nevertheless, he seems to have been the dominant miniature painter of his time with a large workshop and, among other things, had a lasting influence on the Rouen School .

literature

  • Delcourt, Thierry: The Passages d'Outremer , a masterpiece of French illumination of the 15th century. In: Mamerot, Les Passages d'Outremer. A Chronicle of the Crusades. Thierry Delcourt, Danielle Quérel, Fabrice Masanès (eds.), Cologne: Taschen, 2009, pp. 20-23 ( ISBN 978-3-8365-0501-7 ).


  1. ↑ In 1463 Jean Colombe rented a house together with the scribe Clement Thiebaut in Bourges
  2. ↑ Including the douze perils d'enfer in Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 449.
  3. ^ Brussels, KBR, Inv. 9246 (vol. 1) and Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 91 (Vol. 2), The manuscript was commissioned in 1480 by the Geneva Bishop Jean-Louis of Savoy. After his death in 1482, the manuscript probably passed into the possession of his nephew, Charles I of Savoy
  4. ↑ From this the date of death of Jean Colombes is sometimes derived, but he is only mentioned as deceased in the invoice documents from 1497
  5. ↑ s. most recently Jean-Yves Ribault: Les Colombe, une famille d'artistes à Bourges au XVe siècle. In: Jean-René Gaborit (ed.): Michel Colombe et son temps. (Congrès National des Sociétés Historiques et Scientifiques, 124e, Nantes, 19-26 avril 1999). Editions du CTHS, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-7355-0451-4 , pp. 13-26.
  6. ↑ also Master of the Yale Missal after the Hs in Yale University, beincke Library, Ms. 425
  7. ^ Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 2577-78. This version is the only surviving version of the compilation by Sebastien Mamerot, which was originally intended to contain a story by Godefroy de Bouillon. The copy is dated 1472 by Robert Bryart of Troyes, although work on the text began as early as the 1460s. For the manuscript see: Otto Pächt , Dagmar Thoss: French school. (= Publications of the Commission for Writing and Books of the Middle Ages. Row 1: The illuminated manuscripts and incunabula of the Austrian National Library. Vol. 1 = Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class. Memoranda. 118). Text volume 1. Verlag of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-7001-0063-9 , p. 68 ff.
  8. ↑ Chantilly, Musee Conde, Ms. 65
  9. ↑ El Escorial, Biblioteca del Real Monasterio, Cod. E. Vitr. 5, the occasional early dating of the completion to 1482 results from a wrong reading of the Savoyard invoice documents, which was edited in a second edition. The apocalypse was completed after the Tres Riches Heures
  10. ↑ Paris, BNF, Ms. lat. 920. The main observations on the two working phases with François Avril in the exhibition cat. Les manuscrits à peintures en France. 1440-1520 , Paris 1993. Previously, the Hs was generally dated to the 1480s
personal data
SURNAME Colombe, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French illuminator
DATE OF BIRTH around 1430
DATE OF DEATH around 1493