Château de Melun - Grandes Chroniques de France f019 (détail) - Jean Fouquet

Jean Fouquet (1420–1481) was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience first-hand the early Italian Renaissance. He was born in Tours. Little is known of his life, but he was certainly in Italy before 1447 when he executed a portrait of Pope Eugene IV, who died that year (the portrait survives only in much-later copies).