Réflexions sur les prétendus Statuts de Saint-Michel enluminés par François Le Barbier fils et Jean Hey

Résumé 0

The library of the dukes of Bourbon has recently been the subject of an academic research, published in 2022. It was an opportunity th re-examine many masterpieces, as the so-called Statutes of St Michel, ordered in 1493-1494 by the duke Pierre II de Bourbon to be offered to the king Charles VIII. They get their fame from the miniature of Jean Hey, the only one know to date of the official painter of the duke. In reality, the manuscript doesn’t contain stricto censu the statutes themselves, but only the ordinance of december, 24 1476 relating to the creation of a collegiate church of the order in the St-Michel chapel of the Paris royal Palace. The manuscript has been copied in Paris, and there illuminated by François Le Barbier fils, who is the painter of the miniature of St Michel slaying the demon; then, it has been send to Moulins to be completed by a epistle dedicated to the king, illustrated by the famous miniature of Jean Hey representing the Apparition of St Michel to Charles VIII.