Supported projects

This doctoral research project examines the making of artworks in 15th-century Provence, through the production of Enguerrand Quarton, his circle, and his followers. While the iconography and style of these remarkable works from the late Middle Ages have been extensively studied, the pictorial techniques and materials employed by these painters remain largely unknown, as the artworks in question have been the subject of little material investigation. Enguerrand Quarton’s production is both prolific and highly diverse: according to commissioning documents, he produced monumental altarpieces as well as illuminations in Books of Hours, wall paintings, and even, in all likelihood, glass painting. This major artist operated within a vibrant technical context, stimulated by the intersecting influences of the Northern and Italian Renaissances, at the heart of the human and material crossroads that Provence represented at the time. The objective is to understand how the artistic project is concretely embodied in the material, from illumination to monumental altarpiece, and to define the respective roles of tradition, the importation of know-how, and innovation within the studied works. This interdisciplinary approach brings the study of written sources and the review of past analyses into dialogue with direct examination and new physicochemical analyses carried out on a selection of works. Cross-referencing this data will thus shed light on the production methods and organization of a workshop as versatile as Quarton’s, while clarifying the influence this painter exerted on Provencal artists who remain anonymous today.