Master of Fauvel (Workshop of the) (French, active in Paris ca. 1314–ca. 340)

The miniature is taken from the book III of Gratian’s Decree and illustrates more precisely a passage of canon law, as attested by the text on the back.

The chosen scene shows the process of excommunication of a bishop, wearing a miter and carrying a crook, by a secular judge. To his left, the bishop and his partisans, obviously from the same church; to his right, the accusing party.

The refinement of the miniature border and the freshness of the colors attest to a careful execution of the book whose owners, most likely clerics considering the nature of the text, must have made very little use.

If the compilation of Gratian’s writings was published under Decretum around 1230-35, the text still served centuries later as a legal reference, benefitting from numerous additions, updates and new editions.

With the advent of Parisian and Italian universities specialized in law in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the monasteries which were producing the manuscripts could no longer meet the demand. Secular workshops took over and began to copy all kind of texts. The present miniature shows a striking similarity with the productions of the Parisian workshop of the Master of Fauvel. The style, slender silhouettes and faces typical of this artist’s handling of the human figure, could date from around 1330, so towards the end of his career.

Anonymous author