The Burgundian Court Assembled: Presentation Miniature of the Chroniques de Hainaut, 1447
Jean Wauquelin presenting his Chroniques de Hainaut to Philip the Good in 1447, with Charles the Bold, Chancellor Rolin and Bishop Chevrot ranged behind the duke. Attributed to Rogier van der Weyden, it is a portrait of the Burgundian court as it wished to be seen: ceremony, hierarchy and patronage in one room.
Nothing at the Burgundian court happened casually. The presentation of a book was staged like everything else — the author kneeling, the duke seated and hatted, the household arranged by rank, the whole scene painted so that it could be looked at afterwards. The performers who worked that court, from chroniclers to musicians and fools, were paid out of the same ducal accounts and served the same purpose: making the authority of a duke who was not a king look inevitable. The manuscript is Brussels, KBR, MS 9242. See culture, power and performance among the court entertainers of medieval Burgundy.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
