The painting we are discussing here is the Melun Diptych, an artwork produced by distinguished French court painter Jean Fouquet in the year 1455. A diptych is an artwork that has 2 hinged panels that can be folded like a book..
The left panel, which is the focus of this research study, features St. Stephen holding a closed book, atop which rests a strange rock. Next to him, King Charles VIIs treasurer, Etienne Chevalier, is depicted in prayer. The ideal panel is a painting of the Virgin Mary and Christ the Child.
A well-known 15th-century painting has been hiding an ancient trick in plain sight, as scientists from Dartmouth University and the University of Cambridge have recently found. Their research study revealed that what was previously presumed to be a symbol of St. Stephens martyrdom in Jean Fouquets Melun Diptych is, in fact, an ancient stone hand axe.
St. Stephen was stoned to death around 36 CE so the rock in Melun Diptych was constantly believed to be a symbol of his martyrdom. However, the brand-new research study recommends that the rock is an Acheulean hand axe, a stone tool that was used as early as 1.7 million years ago and is typically considered one of the oldest tools made by humans..
The left panel of Jean Fouquets Melun Diptych. Image credits: Jean Fouquet/Wikimedia Commons
Whats so special about an Acheulean handaxe?
Close-up detail of the hand-axe-like things. Credit: Sailko.
Acheulean handaxes from the website of Boxgrove, England, which dates to about 500,000 years ago. Credit: W. Roebroeks, Evolutionary Anthropology.
Archaeological debates are plentiful worrying the handaxes designated use. While lots of experts consider them cutting tools, others hypothesize they may have been thrown as weapons. Some propose their usage as signs of social status. Individuals have utilized them to show off their skills like “whose handaxe is the best or who is the best stone tool maker.”.
According to the scientists, before the 17th century, these axes werent recognized as manufactured tools. They were described “thunderstones,” thought to fall from the heavens during thunderstorms. However did this diptych reveal an Acheulean handaxe or are scientists misinterpreting something more ordinary?
To examine, the scientists closely examined the shape, color, and possible flake scars on the stone portrayed in the Melun Diptych..
The majority of scholars believe that their unique shape was purposeful, yet a couple of contend that duplicated sharpening of a crude tool may naturally result in the handaxe form.
These bifacial stone tools were common about 300,000 years earlier throughout the mid-paleolithic age. Being some of the oldest and most regularly used tools from prehistoric times, they hold significant historical interest.
The analysis exposed that the stone strongly looked like real Acheulean hand axes. Additionally, the location where the painting originated, near chalk bedrock, meant easy access to the flint utilized to make such Stone Age tools.
” Acheulean handaxes are one of the most greatly examined Palaeolithic artifacts. They likewise represent among the couple of stone artifact types to have actually made their way into pop culture,” the research study authors note.
Did Jean Fouquet also learn about Stone Age handaxes?
With this discovery, the world of art and archaeology intertwines, and future research study may further light up the secrets surrounding the Acheulean rock in the Melun Diptych.
The left panel, which is the focus of this research study, includes St. Stephen holding a closed book, atop which rests a peculiar rock. The ideal panel is a painting of the Virgin Mary and Christ the Child.
The two panels of “The Melun Diptych” (circa 1455) by Jean Fouquet.
Note: The left panel of the diptych (which depicts St. Peter and the stone) is presently kept in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, while the right panel remains in the possession of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium.
They also acknowledge that they have no idea if Fouquet was aware that he was painting a Stone Age handaxe..
It is also possible that the handaxe was viewed as a spiritual object in spiritual, royal, or scholarly circles. This originality may have been why it was included in the painting, as it wasnt something the majority of people recognized with.
The research study is published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
Fouquets attention to information in rendering the artifact and its resemblance to genuine Stone Age hand axes in the area provide solid assistance to the researchers theory. Jointly, their analysis proposes a compelling case that the item in the painting is indeed a real ancient hand axe. However, this is no proof per se.
” We can not mention with absolute certainty that an Acheulean handaxe was painted by Jean Fouquet c. 1455. What we have done is demonstrate, as far as it is possible, that the stone things in the image is most likely to be one,” the study authors stated..
” It is difficult to offer any firm resolution on why a handaxe was utilized by Fouquet within the painting. It could have been due to this objects universality within society, in which case it would have been portrayed due to a shared understanding of such objects,” they included..
Did this diptych reveal an Acheulean handaxe or are researchers misinterpreting something more mundane?
Fouquets attention to detail in rendering the artifact and its resemblance to genuine Stone Age hand axes in the area offer solid assistance to the researchers theory. Jointly, their analysis proposes an engaging case that the item in the painting is indeed an authentic ancient hand axe.