Surprise Stone Axe

This is a copy of a painting by Jehan Fouquet, court painter to Charles VII in the 15th century. It hangs in the Logis Royal in Loches. It depicts Etienne Chevalier, Charles's right hand man, and his name saint, Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. It is the left half of a diptych. The right half is the much better known Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels, for which Charles's mistress, Agnes Sorel, sat as the model. The work, in oil on wood panel, is known as the Melun Diptych and was commissioned by Etienne Chevalier for the church in his home town of Melun.

We know the saint is Saint Stephen because he holds a rock, as a symbol of his matyrdom, which was being stoned to death. But wait! That's an interesting looking rock! It looks like a piece of worked flint, a hand axe!!

Jehan Fouquet came from the Touraine, which is full of flint and prehistoric tools. Did he own this particular rock, and understand it to be a prehistoric tool?

The rock appears to be worked on both sides and flaked so as to have a pointed tip. Scientists studying the painting today think it might be as old as half a million years, and of a type known as Acheulean handaxes.

The earliest mention in written documents of handaxes dates from the mid-16th century, but people at that time thought they were natural and referred to them as 'thunderstones', believing they fell from the sky. It wasn't until the 17th and 18th centuries that their true origins were guessed at.

To back up their idea that the stone in the painting is an Acheulean handaxe the scientists analysed the overall shape and found it had a 95% match to handaxes made in France. They also analysed the colour and compared it to 20 Acheulean handaxes found in France. Their conclusion that the careful application of yellows, browns and reds typical of these French axes shows that Fouquet went to great trouble to accurately depict the object. This included painting 33 flake scar marks (the scientists found that 30 was the average on the actual axes). Infra red analysis also showed he had reworked the axe and had done an underdrawing. It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that Fouquet had access to or had seen this handaxe.

The scientists think the handaxe intrigued Fouquet and he deliberately carefully portrayed it. What he cannot have known was that these axes were used in Europe by pre-Homo sapiens species.

Fouquet is considered one of the most important artists of his time because of his early adoption and skill with oil paints. The original of the painting is now in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin (the Virgin and Child is in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp).