Jason and Medea conversing in a forest. Plate 8 from The legend of the Golden Fleece

The engraving is Plate 8 from the series of 26, The Legend of the Golden Fleece. It depicts the hero Jason and Medea conversing in a forest, with Cupid appearing in the top right corner, and the Three Graces in silhouette, watching from afar on the left. Medea is giving Jason an urn containing a magical ointment. The scene is contained within a highly ormate border with architectural details. Te Papa also owns Plate 1 from the same series.

This print is a good example of the school of Fontainebleau style, as interpreted by René Boyvin, a professional engraver based in Paris. He worked after designs by Fontainebleau artist Léonard Thiry in a careful and confident style. The school takes its name from the château of Fontainebleau, located almost 60 km. southeast of Paris, and the preferred residence of King Francis I (ruled 1515-1547). The term refers to a group of artists engaged by the king, and after his death by his son Henry II, to decorate interiors of the château with frescoes, elaborately carved wood panelling and stucco sculptures, and by extension, the style of this décor and the prints (particularly those from c. 1542-1547) that reproduced the compositions of many of the frescoes.

The school of Fontainebleau artists produced figures in a distinctive Mannerist style derived from Italian and in several instances in Francis's court (most famously Benvenuto Cellini), practised by them. The style is characterised by sinuous lines and elegantly elongated proportions, frequently arranged in difficult, indeed unrealistic poses.

Dr Mark Stocker      Curator, Historical International Art          May 2017