Etienne Chevalier, treasurer to the French monarchs Charles VII and Louis XI, commissioned a diptych from Jean Fouquet which remained in the collegiate church of Notre-Dame in Melun until it was split up in the late 18th century. The left-hand panel, now in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie, depicts Chevalier kneeling and accompanied by his patron saint Stephen. The right-hand panel, belonging to the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, presents a surprisingly original representation of the Virgin within the context of French painting of this period.

A masterpiece of French painting, The Virgin and Child with Angels reveals the original way that Fouquet gave visual form to the various influences that helped define his style. While the iconography, in particular the monochrome red and blue angels, derives from the northern European tradition, the way in which the work was devised and painted reveals the artist’s knowledge of the art of Flanders and Quattrocento Italy. The manner of conveying the different textures and effects of light, such as the reflection of the window on the polished surface of the two balls of the throne, recalls Jan van Eyck. In contrast, the geometrical construction of space and the artist’s interest in pure forms, evident in the Virgin’s oval head and her breasts, which are drawn with a compass, bring to mind the work of Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca.