Master of Antoine de Roche
Artists
The Master of Antoine de Roche has been tentatively identified with Guido Mazzoni of Modena (d. 1518) who is first documented as a painter in Italy in 1472, but was mainly known for his painted terracotta sculpture.
Mazzoni left for France in 1496 where he served as artist to Charles VIII (1470-1498) and designed the king’s bronze tomb in St Denis. Mazzoni also executed various commissions for Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, and it is conceivable that he made this Primer at the queen’s request. Ironically, for a book that was made to teach her daughter how to read, garbled captions in Old French (e.g. ADEM ET VEE) are inscribed on the gold frames of the miniatures. The captions in red and blue were painted with a fine brush and are almost certainly the work of the illuminator. Whoever supplied the captions had not mastered French, which lends support to the idea that the artist was a foreigner. No works survive from Guido Mazzoni’s time in France, so whether he did, in fact, illuminate Claude’s Primer remains subject to debate.
Adam hoeing and Eve spinning; Adam on his deathbed dispatching Seth; Seth at the gate of Paradise
According to Genesis, after Adam and Eve had been cast out of Eden, Adam was assigned a specific task — agricultural labour — but no particular job, other than bearing children, was allocated to Eve. Nevertheless, as early as the 5th century, Eve is shown spinning while Adam digs, and the motif became standard by the 12th century. The scenes showing Adam and Eve’s son, Seth, are not based on the Bible, but derive from Arnoul Gréban’s Mystère de la Passion, a religious play performed in Paris in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.