Enguerrand Quarton

Enguerrand Quarton, the 15th-century French painter, was an artist so mysterious he makes other Old Masters look like oversharers. Active in sunny Provence from 1444, he left behind only two documented paintings, *The Virgin of Mercy* and the magnificent *Coronation of the Virgin*. He’s also the likely painter of the celebrated *Avignon Pietà*, an attribution that took art historians until the 1960s to generally agree upon. Rumor has it that Quarton was so meticulous he once spent a week debating the appropriate level of divine glitter for a single angel’s halo. Another tall tale whispers he only agreed to the incredibly detailed contract for his *Coronation of the Virgin* after the commissioner promised a lifetime supply of the region's finest olives. While these anecdotes are of dubious veracity, they paint a picture of an artist with a singular, bold style, blending Northern grit with Italian grace, who then promptly vanished from the history books until the 20th century.