The Master of the Parement of Narbonne, often referred to more briefly as the Master of the Parement or Parement Master is the name given to an artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 of uncertain identity who flourished in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the late 14th century and early 15th century. He belongs to the period of medieval painting sometimes referred to as International Gothic

International Gothic

International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...

. The Master is named after the Parement de Narbonne, a unique painted silk altar frontal or parament

Parament

A Parament or Parement; , a term applied by ancient writers to the hangings or ornaments of a room of state. Later it has referred to the liturgical hangings on and around the altar, as well as the cloths hanging from the pulpit and lectern, as well as the ecclesiastical vestments and mitres...

 found in the former Cathedral of Saint Just at Narbonne

Narbonne

Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and now in the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

The Parement of Narbonne is 2.86 m long and 77.5 cm high, and is painted in black ink (strictly, grisaille

Grisaille

Grisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range, like the Andrea del Sarto fresco...

) on silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

. It includes scenes from the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, including the Kiss of Judas, the Flagellation, the Carrying of the Cross, the Entombment, the Descent into Limbo and the Noli Me Tangere

Noli me tangere

Noli me tangere, meaning "don't touch me" / "touch me not", is the Latin version of words spoken, according to , by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognizes him after his resurrection....

. The then king of France, Charles V

Charles V of France

Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...

 and his queen, Jeanne de Bourbon, are shown kneeling at either side of the cross in the central Crucifixion scene. Their presence suggests that the altarcloth was commissioned between 1364, the date of Charles's accession, and 1378, when the queen died. Its colour suggests that it was made for use during Lent

Lent

In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...

, when it was conventional for richly coloured altarpieces to be covered by more simple drapes.

Some illuminated manuscript

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...

s are attributed to the same artist or his circle, including some of the illustrations in the Book of Hours

Book of Hours

The book of hours was a devotional book popular in the later Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each manuscript book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and...

 of René d'Anjou which is now in the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

, and the important manuscript, now in different parts in several museums known as the Très Belles Heures de Notre Dame (BnF

BNF

BNF may stand for:In science:*Biological nitrogen fixation, a process that converts nitrogen in the atmosphere to ammonia*British National Formulary, the standard drug reference manual**British National Formulary for Children...

), and the Milan-Turin Hours. According to the British Library, the Parement Master may have been Jean d'Orleans, an artist who is known to have been employed by Charles V between 1340 and 1407.

The style of the workshop of the Parement Master is distinctive. The figures are graceful and relatively realistic and three-dimensional in appearance, with expressive faces, but their heads tend to be disproportionate and heavy. Meiss (1967) suggests that the artists were influenced by earlier Italian painting, though others have drawn parallels with contemporary Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

n style, or have seen northern (perhaps Flemish

Flemish painting

Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence...

) influence in the realism of the faces. Both the handling of the grisaille technique and the box-like architectural frames in which some of the scenes are set indicate a keen awareness of the earlier work of Jean Pucelle

Jean Pucelle

Jean Pucelle was a Parisian Gothic-era manuscript illuminator, active between 1320 and 1350. His style is characterized by delicate figures rendered in grisaille, accented with touches of color....

(active in Paris in the 1320s).

External links

• Account of the Parement de Narbonne on the website of the Louvre
• British Library catalogue entry about the Anjou Hours, with link to information about the Master of the Parement