Jean Duvet
Jean Duvet (1485 – after 1562) was a French Renaissance goldsmith and engraver, now best known for his engravings. He was the first significant French printmaker. He produced about seventy-three known plates, that convey a highly personal style, often compared to that of William Blake, with very crowded compositions, a certain naive quality, and intense religious feeling. According to Henri Zerner, his work has a "freedom and immediacy that have no equivalent in Renaissance printmaking". A degree of mystery surrounds his biography, as there is disagreement as to whether or not he was the Jean Duvet from Dijon who spent sixteen years in the militantly Calvinist city-state of Geneva. Life He was born to a Dijon goldsmith in 1485, presumably in Dijon itself, which until a decade before had been part of the independent state of the Duchy of Burgundy. He became a master of the Dijon Goldsmiths' guild in 1509, and may have travelled to Italy in about 1519; this is purely an inference from his prints, which show considerable Italian influence. His first dated print is The Annunciation from 1520, although others are probably earlier. A misunderstanding of the nature of a pilaster in this print, which shows a putto wrapped round one as though it were a thin sheet, unattached to the wall behind, perhaps suggests that his understanding of the Italian style was derived purely from prints, books and other objects brought back to France. Although he remained in the provinces, he was appointed goldsmith to both Francis I and Henry II. The first of these appointments was on the occasion of the King's visit to Langres, where he was already living, in 1521; he had been involved in the decorations for the Royal Entry. By the next royal visit, in 1533, he was in charge of the festivities and decoration. The influence of pageant tableaus and scenery has been detected in his prints. No identified examples of his goldsmithing survive, though commissions for Francis I and others are documented. He died, probably in Langres, after 1562, when he is recorded as attending a town meeting there, though Zerner gives his death date as 1561 and Marqusee says that there is no specific documentation of Duvet after the last Geneva mention in 1556. His last dated print is the Frontispiece of 1555. He was certainly dead by 1570, but some authorities think he was alive until about then - 1570 is the death date given by the Getty Union Artist Names List for example. Geneva theory A Jean Duvet from Dijon is also recorded working as a goldsmith in Calvinist Geneva from 1540–56, but most scholarly opinion now believes that this was someone else, probably his nephew. The question perhaps cannot be regarded as entirely settled. The Geneva Duvet was recorded as the son of "Loys Duvey, alias Drot de Dijon", probably Jean Duvet's brother, who became a Master in 1509. Eisler and Blunt favour the Geneva figure being Duvet himself, followed by Marqusee; Zerner and