RE: Pizan's pool party
R. Sale > 23-05-2020, 05:52 PM
Another interesting connection to Jean, Duc de Berry. So, as the number of connections increases, at what point does it potentially reach a sort of critical mass? If the VMs artist never had contact with these texts, what can account for the apparent similarities? And it's not abut the duke himself, who died in Paris in 1416, it's about his library, which, I believe, continued primarily intact for a while longer.
There is also the general connection to Paris and the works of Christine de Pizan at the same time.
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was also a noted bibliophile. Besides the books he inherited, he also commissioned a number of works. So one aspect of comparison is the total number of books. These later commissioned works, from the examples in the recent KBR exhibit, are mainly after 1450, with many produced in Flanders. None of these later texts, to my knowledge, have been suggested for comparison with the VMs.
If the VMs artist is borrowing ideas and influences from various external sources, those sources seem to be indicating a cumulative presence in the first half of the 1400s.