Material panel
Dimensions 100 × 198.1 cm
Place of Creation France
Price Available upon inquiry
Status Vetted

About the Work

This striking two-meter-wide panel is a previously unpublished addition to the very limited oeuvre of Jean Cousin the Elder, regarded as the foremost representative of the French High Renaissance. Absent from the market for several decades and the subject of a dedicated monographic study by leading specialist Frédéric Elsig, the monumental work is now incorporated into the artist’s catalogue, which comprises fewer than ten securely attributed paintings.


Cousin the Elder played a pivotal role in introducing the maniera moderna to France and served as chief overseer of the artistic projects commissioned by King Francis I. The painting depicts the Descent of Pentecost and originally formed part of an important cycle commissioned for the Charterhouse of Vauvert, Paris’s most significant abbey, which was destroyed during the French Revolution. Until now, only three other surviving panels from the cycle were known—all smaller and of lesser quality. According to experts, this newly resurfaced work is the most important, best preserved, and artistically superior among them.


For its exceptional quality, the significance of its author, and its central role within the original pictorial cycle, the painting stands as one of the most sensational rediscoveries in French art of recent decades and a fundamental addition to the artist’s catalogue.

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Provenance

Private Collection, Italy.

Literature

"A New Light on the French Renaissance:The Pentecost by Jean Cousin I” by Frédéric Elsig. 2026

View artwork at TEFAF Maastricht 2026

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