Jacquemart de Hesdin

(b Beauvais, 21 Aug 1538). French composer. He was a master of the choirboys at Beauvais Cathedral from at least 1536 until his death. His music began to circulate in the late 1520s and by 1533 had earned him a reputation alongside that of Festa, Jacquet of Mantua and Willaert as one of the eminent ‘moderni’. His works, which include three masses, two Magnificats, over a dozen motets and numerous chansons, are of high quality, revealing a sensitivity to sonority and a feeling for structural articulation.

(b ?Hesdin, Artois; fl 1384; d after 1413). South Netherlandish illuminator, active in France. He was one of the Netherlandish artists who moved to France to work for the French royal family from the middle of the 14th century. By studying the work of Jean Pucelle and Italian painters he not only evolved his techniques of modelling and rendering of space but also modified the realism characteristic of Netherlandish painting to develop his own more refined style. On 28 November 1384 Jacquemart was paid for the first time by the administration of Jean, Duc de Berry (see VALOIS, (3)). The payment concerned expenses that he and his wife had incurred in Bourges; he was also reimbursed for his clothing for the following winter months. Thereafter he was paid a regular salary by the Duc. In 1398, while he was working in the castle of Poitiers, he, his assistant Godefroy and his brother-in-law Jean Petit were accused of having stolen colours and patterns from Jean de Hollande, another painter in the service of the Duc de Berry. Jacquemart stayed temporarily in Bourges the following year. He may have been in contact with John I of Aragon in 1409.

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