Akademik

(active c. 1400-1430)

   The leading manuscript illuminator in Paris in the early years of the 15th century. He is not known by name, but his execution of the Book of Hours of Jean le Meingre, Maréchal de Boucicaut (beg. c. 1409; Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Ms. 2) is what gives him his current appellation. To the Boucicaut Master are also attributed illuminations in the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon (c. 1410-1415; Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Ms. fr. 165) and Les Grandes Heures du duc de Berry (1409; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 919). The Boucicaut Master stands out from other manuscript illuminators of his era in that he achieved a greater sense of realism, mainly through the use of atmospheric perspective and a single viewpoint—a realism he was able to integrate into the courtly scenes expected by his patrons.

   See also Illuminated manuscript; Jean, Duc de Berry.