Bourdichon, Jean

(ca. 1457-1521)

   painter, miniaturist

   Born probably in Tours, Jean Bourdichon found favor as an artist with louis xi and then with charles v III, for whom he became court painter (1484). Later, he was commissioned by Francis i to do the decoration for the Field of Cloth of Gold. Bourdichon directed an important workshop of illustrators and produced a large number of works himself. He is the creator of the Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne (ca. 1503-08), which features margins decorated with flowers, fruits, and insects and which reveals his fine talent. He sought above all to reproduce gracefully gestures and faces. For a long time the Heures de Ferdinand d'Aragon, Heures de Charles VIII, and Heures de François de Vendôme (ca. 1480) were attributed to Bourdichon, but they are instead most likely the work of a disciple of jean fouquet.