Jean Robertet
Detail of a miniature on the title page of the register of the Order of Michael by Jean Fouquet , Paris around 1470
Jean Robertet , also Jehan Robertet ( 1405 - 1492 ) was a French lawyer, writer and poet. He came to the royal court in the entourage of the dukes of Bourbon from Montbrison in the Forez . He is mentioned first as the notary and secretary of the Forez Chamber of Accounts, and later in his capacity as bailiff for Usson .
Life
In 1466 he answered a request to the Duke as "Grand Master of Waters and Forests". Thereupon he is named as a co-signer in several documents. In Moulins he was in the wake of several dukes who introduced him to the king. 1469 founded Ludwig XI. in Amboise the Order of Michael and installed Jean Robertet as "Grand Chancellor of the Order" (which explains why the Robertets Chapel in Montbrison was consecrated to St. Michel).
His job was to have the first two copies of the statutes prepared, the king's was adorned with a miniature, and to update the minutes of the religious meetings. In 1477 his brother Alexis gave him the inheritance rights for the domain "Bouillons", which remained with his descendants. The property was in the Loire plain near Mornand-en-Forez and comprised a house, stables, dovecote, fish ponds, fields, meadows and heathland. The name Bouillons referred to the "bubbling springs" whose water flows into the Loire. One pond kept the name Petit Robertet , and a property register from 1494 lists the "Rente Noble Robertet", which was collected in Magneux-Hauterive .
As assistant to the Estates- General , it was Robertet's job to collect the originals of the King's replies in the minutes of the Estates-General. A copy of Anne de France's tributes in the National Library is dedicated to Jehan Robertet, “Secretary to the King and First Officer of the Royal Order”.
Robertet's traveling activity did not prevent him from exercising his writing talents at the court of Moulins and then in Paris. In his poems he shows an Italian influence that can be traced back to a stay in Italy. The method of spreading his poems by the fact that he in the tapestries that Petrarch trionfi represent has, can weave is nothing new, but belongs to the world of the great orator.
Of course, it is significant for the visual arts that in his repackaging of the Trionfi he introduces the Parzen into the triumph of death , which Petrarch does not mention. Via this detour they find their way into the iconography of the Trionfi as personifications of death .
A friend of Charles de Orléans and a contemporary of François Villon , Robertet became a poet "of good repute". The "Douze Dames de Rhétorique" are partly ascribed to him, a collection of poetic and prose texts from which modern anthologies still quote certain passages today:
... I'm dying of thirst in front of the well,
I find sweet what has to be bitter,
I love and appreciate all those who hate me,
I hate all those who I should have loved ...
As a powerful official, Jean Robertet could also act as a patron. In 1469, as Grand Chancellor of the Order of Michael, he entrusted Jean Fouquet with the task of creating a miniature of Louis XI. and to paint the fifteen knights of the order. Then Fouquet depicted him standing behind the king's seat, holding the register of the order in his hands.
Jean Robertet married Madeleine Bohier, from Issoire, and after her death, Louise Chauvet, from Montbrison. He had seven children from his first wife and two from his second wife. Of his children, two assisted him in his work as secretary to the king and later succeeded him in office, while two others, Charles and Jacques, became bishops of Albi .
At the end of his life Robertet had the chapel built in the church of Montbrison, where he was later buried with his family. This chapel was started around 1490 and completed in 1524 by his son Florimond I. Robertet .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Robertet, Jean |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Robertet, Jehan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French lawyer, writer and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1405 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1492 |