How Jean Fouquet Pioneered Visual Storytelling

Jean Fouquet, known primarily for his masterpiece 'Virgin and Child', is a French artist from the 15^th century with interesting and unusual origins. He was a pioneer in many ways, being the first painter of his country to travel to Italy to experience the Italian Renaissance first-hand, he is also the supposed inventer of the portrait miniature. This kind of avant-garde way of thinking was born when Jean fused his influences, namely the Flemish and Tuscan styles of painting, and created his own unique brand.

Though Jean's works are to this day very unique, when one studies his background you can literally point out all the different elements of his work and understand where and when he learned them. For example the precise lines and colouring of the above image 'The Nativity' were certainly acquired from the skills he learned as a master limner and miniaturist.

As a storyteller I find that his panel painting works, such as the one I've put in this article, are the most enchanting. Going completely against the grain of the 15^th century's accepted standards of artistic merit, Fouquet does not pay much to any attention to the fine-detailing of the individual characters, their emotions, their tragedy, their symbolism, but instead treats all those who fall inside his canvass as one big character, one big story to be expressed as a whole.

'The Nativity' is all about story, it isn't about Mary's thoughts as she keeps her baby safe in a barn, even the border seems to suggest a disconnection from the actual events of these human beings, we're not meant to be seeing them for who they really are, we're not meant to feel like we're right there with them, we're seeing the story of it all and the grandeur beauty of a famous, immortalized tale.

Fouquet found a sense of art in visual storytelling rather than in romantic symbolism, this was one of the many oddities that made him great. It was simply not done in those days, stories were stories and paintings were paintings, they were both ways of expressing ideas and exploring human society, but Fouquet showed that there was a sense of humanity in the actual idea of a story itself, that one moment captured in time and passed through the ages is something that reflects our nature.

As a writer, I am inspired by the way he combined his influences to make something great. It's a very tricky thing to discuss when it comes to artistry, where it comes from, and if somebody can ever be truly original? Every bit of Fouquets works can be pinpointed to a time in his life where he would have learned a particular skill from some other movement, but in the end, using all of these ideas, he created something truly original. Art isn't created in a vacuum, and this legendary painter is a great example of that.