The
great painter of Valois France, in the last decades of the 15th century,
who used to be known as the Master of Moulins because of the spectacular
Moulin Triptych, in the Cathedral
of Moulins, and who was only recently identified as Jean Hey (or Hay).
The Nativity of Cardinal Jean Rolin
at Autun by the same painter bears an inscription on the back of the altarpiece
which documents the painter as Jean Hey; he is described as an outstanding
German, no doubt with reference to his Netherlandish origin. Charles
II of Bourbon, Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon, Meeting
at the Golden Gate and Portrait of
Francis de Chateaubriand Presented by St. Maurice are also
attributed to him. The Moulin Triptych and The Nativity
of Rolin are close to the style of Hugo
van der Goes, and some art historians believe that Jean Hay could be
a pupil of the famous Dutchman.
The central section of the Moulin altarpiece bears The
Virgin in Glory, Surrounded by Angels. The wings of the altarpiece
show the portraits of Hay's patrons, Duke Peter II of Bourbon, who reigned
in Moulin, and his Valois wife Anna introduced by their eponymous saints.
This indicates that the painter worked in court circles, and from about
1483 in the province of Bourbonnais.
The Louvre panels, e.g. Portrait presumed to
be of Madeleine of Burgundy Presented by St. Madeleine, showing
equivalent portrait presentations, or fragments of them, plainly come from
a similar complex, also by Jean Hay.
Cardinal Jean Rolin, son of the Chancellor
painted by Jan van Eyck, commissioned
the Nativity in 1480 for the cathedral in his hometown. While
the painting reveals an evident knowledge of Netherlandish art, it is also
characterized by certain features belonging specifically to French Early
Renaissance.