Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/96

 CLOUTIER

68

CLOVBSHO

He was the son and pupil of Jean the Elder, a Flemish painter who went to Paris from Brussels in 1460 and afterwards settled at Tours. Francis I made the son court painter at Paris, and, in 1518, a valet de chambre, a post of distinction. The court called him familiarly "Janet", a name which became generic, comprising his father, his son Frangois, and their numerous imi- tators. Konsard sang:

Peins moy, Janet, peins moy je t'en supplie. His numerous portraits of royalty and nobility are all in the antique, or Gothic, style, like that of the Van Eycks. His outlines are sharp and precise, all the lines are clear, and he gives great attention to details. Clouet painted his sitter with fidelity and avoided the- atrical (Italian) effects, hence the result is a portrait, simple, reticent, and naive. Much of his work was until recently attributed to Holbein. In 1524 he painted the celebrated portrait of Francis I in full armour on horseback, and in 1528 another, a life-size bust (now at Versailles), long ascribed to Mabuse. Some authorities claim that of his many pictures only one is authentic: the portrait of Francis I in the Louvre. Other notable works of Clouet's are " Elea- nor of Spain" (wife of Francis I) in Hampton Court, and "Margaret of Valois" in Liverpool.

II. FR.\Nfois, called FRANfois Janet and MaItrb Jehannet, b. probably at Tours, between 1500 and 1520; d. at Paris, between 1570 and 1580. He was the son and pupil of Jean the Younger and was natur- alized in 1541. At the age of thirty-five he succeeded his father as court painter to Francis I, to whom he was also appointed a valet de chambre. Francois was also court painter to Charles IX, at the close of whose reign all traces of him disappear. Clouet's work in oil, while Flemish in its scrupulous attention to de- tails, is, however, distinctively French, and he carried to its highest the fame of "the Janets ". He was the last of the French primitifs. His pictures are painted solidly, in pale, delicate tones, and without chiaro- scuro. Clouet's portraits are true, accurate, and de- void of sentimentality; they show forth the moral and intellectual qualities of each sitter; and they "have the charm of intime painting" (Blanc). Two por- traits of great brilliancy and distinction are the "Francis II as a Child" (1547) now at Antwerp, and "Henry 11" (1553) in the Louvre; but Berlin pos- sesses what are, perhaps, his masterpieces: "Francis II" and the "Due d' Anjou" (Henry III). Clouet's office required him to depict every great court func- tion, and as late as 1709 such a group of pictures was in existence. He made many sketches in black and red chalk, shomng perfect draughtsmanship and splendid modelling. Castle Howard contains eighty- eight such drawings, all in the manner of Holbein. Clouet also painted miniatures; that of greatest his- torical interest is "Mary Queen of Scots" (Windsor Castle), which has never been out of royal possession since catalogued, in the time of Charles, as "by Jennet a French limner". It is probably the only authentic picture of the unhappy Mary. Clouet's work was highly valued during his lifetime, and he was a power at the courts of Francis I, Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX. The brilliant men and women about these monarchs felt that "the Janets" had elevated art and France. To-day their pictures are so highly prized that many forgeries are made of them. Be- sides those mentioned, other great canvases by Fran- gois are "Elizabeth of Austria", "Charles IX", both in the Louvre, and four portraits in Stafford House (London). Collections of his drawings are in the Louvre, British Mu.soum, and Albertina Museum (Viemia).

GowER, Three Hundred Portraits by Clouet at Castle Howard (London. 187.5); BouciiOT. Les Clouet et Comeille (Paris, 1892); DK LAnoRDF., La Ucnaissance a la Cour de France (Paris, 185(>- S5); Charles IX et Francois Clouet in Revur. des Deux Mondes (Dec. 18S5); Pattison, Renaissance of Art in France (I,ondon,

1*'9>- Leigh Hunt.

Cloutier, F.-X. See Three Rivers, Dioce.se of.

Clovesho, Councils op. — Clovesho, or Clofeshoch, is notable as the place at which were held several coun- cils of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The locality itself has never been successfully identified. It is supposed to have been in Mercia, and probably near London (Bede, ed. Plummer, II, 214). Lingard, in his appen- dix to the "Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church", takes it to be Abingdon, and Kemble (Saxons in Eng- land, II, 191) to be Tewkesbury, and others have thought it might be Cliff-at-Hoo, in Kent, but Had- dan and Stubbs (Councils, III, 121, n.) consider all these conjectures to be based upon unreliable evi- dence. Whatever uncertainty exists in determining the place which was known as Clovesho, there is no doubt as to the fact of the councils or to the authen- ticity of their Acts. When Archbishop Theodore held the Council of Hertford in 673, in which he declared to the assembled bishops that he had been " appointed by the Apostolic See to be Bishop of the Chvirch of Canterbury", a canon was passed to the effect that in future yearly synods should be held every August " in the place which is called Clofeshoch". (Bede, H. E., IV, ch. V.) Notwithstanding this provision, it was not until seventy years later that the first Council of Clovesho of which we have an authentic record was assembled. It is true that in the Canterbury Cartu- lary there is a charter which says that the Privilege of King Wihtred to the churches was "confirmed and ratified in a synod held in the month of July in a place called Clovesho" in the year 716; but the authen- ticity of this document, though intrinsically probable, is held by Haddan and Stubbs to be dependent upon that of the Privilege of Wihtred. The councils of Clovesho of which we have authentic evidence are those of the years 742, 747, 794, 798, 803, 824, and 825.

(1) The Council of Clovesho in 742 was presided over by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, and Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury. According to the record of its proceedings (given in Kemble's "Codex Diplo- maticus jEvi Saxonici", 87), the council "diligently enquired into the needs of religion, the Creed as de- livered by the ancient teaching of the Fathers, and carefully examined how things were ordered at the first beginning of the Church here in England, and where the honour of the monasteries according to the rules of justice was maintained". The privilege of King Wihtred assuring the liberty of the Church was solemnly confirmed. Beyond this, no mention is made of particular provisions.

(2) The Second Council of Clovesho, in 747, was one of the most important in the history of the Anglo- Saxon Church. Its acts were happily copied by Spel- raan (Councils, I, 240) from an ancient Cottonian MS. now lost. They are printed in WUkins, I, 94; in Mansi, XII, .395; and in Haddan and Stubbs, III, 360. They state that the council was composed of "bishops and dignitaries of less degree from the vari- ous provinces of Britain", and that it was presided over by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury. Ac- cording to the MS. preserved by William of Malmes- bury, " King Ethelbald and his princes and chiefs were present". It was thus substantially represen- tative of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The Acts relate that "first of all, the Metropolitan, as president, brought forth in their midst two letters of the Apos- tolic Lord, Pope Zachary, venerated throughout the whole world, and with great care these were plainly read, and also openly translated into our own lan- guage, according as he himself by his Apostolic au- thority had commanded". The papal letters are described as containing a fervent admonition to amendment of life, addressed to the English people of every rank and condition, and reauiring that those who contemned these warnings ana remained obsti-