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The
painting is the Melun Diptych, “painted
by French court
painter Jean Fouquet (1420–1481) created around 1452. The name of this
diptych came from its original home in the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame
in Melun. The left panel depicts Etienne Chevalier with his patron saint
St. Stephen and the right panel depicts the Virgin and Christ child
surrounded by cherubim. Each wooden panel measures about 93 by 85 centimeters
and the two would have been hinged together at the center.” (Wikipedia) As
an Art History student way back when, I of course studied this painting. At
that time the rock held by Saint Stephen on his bible (for consecration) was
merely identified as a rock, the instrument of martyrdom for Saint Stephen who
was stoned to death. Now, a detailed analysis by a team, and
published online by Cambridge University Press, has examined the image in-depth
and has concluded that the particular stone held by St. Stephen is an Acheulian
hand-axe.
“The two pieces, originally a diptych, are now separated. The
left panel is in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin and the right panel is at
the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Belgium. A self-portrait medallion is also
associated with the two panels. Measuring 6 centimeters in diameter, it would
have adorned the frame, and consists of copper, enamel, and gold. The medallion
is now in the Louvre in Paris, France.” (Wikipedia) I
must say that this painting was never a favorite of mine. The two sides are so
mismatched with Etienne Chevalier and St. Stephen looking quite naturalistic
and portrayed against a realistic background, while the right panel with Mary
and the Christ Child painted as if they were a marble statue with the
background of bright red Cherubim. It has always been my judgment that they
were painted separately at different times. I think that the right panel came
first and Fouquet later (maybe many years later given the stylistic
differences) turned it into the diptych when Chevalier commissioned one by painting
and adding the left panel.
But what is of most interest to us here is the stone St. Stephen holds on his bible – an Acheulean hand-axe. “Acheulean, from the French acheuleen after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped ‘hand axeds’ associated with Homo erectus and derived species such a Homo heidelbergensis. Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Paleolithic ere across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe, and are typically found with Homo erectus remains. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed about 2 million years ago, derived from the more primitive Oldowan technology associated with Homo habilis. The Acheulean includes at least the early part of the Middle PLaleolithic. Its end is not well defined, depending on whether the Sangoan (also known as ‘Epi-Acheulean’) is included, it may be taken to last as late as 130,000 years ago. In Europe and Western Asia, early Neanderthals adopted Acheulean technology, transitioning to Mousterian by about 160,000 years ago.” (Wikipedia)
Historically people have always been interested in these
prehistoric tools. Even when they were not recognized as human-made they were
prized as unique items.
“Here, we are concerned with the pre-seventeenth-century social history of handaxes. For such information we often rely on the early oral histories of European populations. From these texts, it is widely stated that prior to the Enlightenment handaxes were often considered to be of natural origin and were thought to have been ‘shot from the clouds’ when lightning struck the ground. Sixteenth-century natural historians across Europe noted the presence of ‘ceraunia’ or ‘thunderstones’ which were ‘curiously shaped stone objects … treated as a naturall occurring geological phenomenon’ formed through lightning strikes. Pliny the Elder (Natural History 37.51) described red ‘elongated’ ceraunia ‘resembling axe-heads’, which were considered by the Magi to be found ‘only in a place that has been struck by a thunderbolt’. Ceraunia were a broad category of objects that not only included handaxes, but also included other prehistoric implements of both flaked and ground origin, and fossilized sea urchins. Descriptions of some ceraunia are, however, undeniable in their resemblance to handaxes and other later bifacial tools, being ‘a heterogeneous category of stones of varying color that are shaped like pyramids, wedges, hammers, spheres, or are sometimes triangular. Prior to 1717, handaxe-like stone ceraunia forms had already been discussed. For these early accounts, and others, it was still often the case that ceraunia – handaxes or not – originated in the sky and were deposited where lightning struck. Earlier oral accounts of ‘thunderbolts’ or ‘thunderstones’ can occasionally be traced to the eleventh to thirteenth century in northern Europe.” (Key 2023) So, when French court painter Jean Fouquet created the Melun Diptych around 1452 he had St. Stephen holding one of these miraculous “Thunder Stones” that was prized as rare natural phenomena.
In their analysis of the object in the painting Key et al (2023) based their analysis primarily on three factors.
"First the stone object appears to have been painted square-on to the observer, to that if it was a handaxe then the 2D outline of the tool is visible within the painting. That is, the shape profile of the potential handaxe, and therefore the shape information potentially imposed by an Acheulean hominin, has been retained. In turn, it is possible to compare the shape of this stone object to handaxe artifacts from known Acheulean assemblages. If the object is found to be within the shape space of confirmed Acheulean assemblages, particularly those from northern France, then it strengthens the inference that an Acheulean handaxe is depicted in the painting, and the social history of these artifacts can be pushed back to the fifteenth century." (Key et al. 2023)
"Second, the stone object's colouration is notable for its similarity to numerous flint handaxes recovered from Quaternary gravel and sand deposits in northwest France and eastern Britain. If the colors in the painting match those on artifacts from deposits found in northern France, where Fouquet lived and worked, then the inference that a handaxe is depicted will again be strengthened." (Key et al. 2023)
"Third, while the object is not depicted using the black ink line illustrations traditionally used in Palaeolithic studies, it nonetheless appears that flake scars have been depicted. Some appear unusually abrupt and irregular-and somewhat akin to frost-fractures found in some flint nodules or flaked flint cores-but others, particularly on the right edge, have the characteristic shallow concavity left behind by flake platforms, and the majority of ridges lead invasively toward the centre of the object. If the number of 'flake scars' visible on the painting is similar to those from northern European Acheulean examplars, then again the inference that a handaxe artifact is depicted will be strengthened." (Key et al. 2023) These larger and cruder flaking scars may signify greater age as later examples are usually much more finely shaped and flaked.
Applying their chosen criteria, Key et al. (2023) find that the stone object held by St. Stephen falls within their self-defined ranges, and is thus likely to be an Acheulean hand-axe.
“We cannot state 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 object in the image is likely to be one. This finding pushes the evidenced social history of handaxes back to the mid fifteenth century, a century before probable instances of ‘handaxe-ceraunia’ are described and two centuries before we have secure written and illustrated evidence of handaxes.” (Key et al. 2023) To my eye the stone being held by St. Stephen is too thick to have been an effective hand-axe. It is certainly flaked like one however. Perhaps Fouquet was inspired by the appearance of a finely flaked hand-axe and made the surface appearance of St. Stephen's instrument of martyrdom resemble it.
Given this assumption, Key et al. (2023) do admit the possibility that the hand-axe does not come from the Acheulean period, but from the Middle Paleolithic period with its prepared-core technology, but they find that in either case it is very likely a hand-axe. “While we cannot rule out that a Middle Paleolithic handaxe could be represented instead, the painted object's coloration—if corresponding to flint—does suggest a heavy patination more often associated with early northern European Acheulean assemblages. This interpretation is supported by our shape and flake scar analyses, which demonstrate the object to be typical for European Acheulean assemblages. Arguably, the painting's origin in northern France, which is known for its Acheulean assemblages, is another point favoring a mid-Pleistocene age for the depicted object.” (Key et al. 2023) Although it appears to me as if the flaking is much cruder than the later and more finely-flaked Middle Paleolithic examples.
Either way, Acheulean or Middle Paleolithic, I find it to be extremely interesting that a painting from the fifteenth century includes a man-made object that could approach two million years in age, and is almost certainly hundreds of thousands of years old.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Key, Alastair, et al., 2023, Acheulian Handaxes in Medieval France: An Earlier ‘Modern’ Social History for Palaeolithic Bifaces, 11 July 2023, https://www.cambridge.org. Accessed online 18 October 2023.
Wikipedia, Melun Diptych, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melun_Diptych. Accessed online 18 October 2023.
Wikipedia, Acheulean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheulean.
Accessed online 29 October 2023.
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