This prayer book was commissioned by Anne de Bretagne, wife of two successive kings of France, Charles VIII and Louis XII, to teach her son, the dauphin Charles-Orland (1492–1495), his catechism. It was painted in Tours by Jean Poyer, an artist documented as working for the queen. The book is richly illustrated, and its thirty-four airy, light-flooded miniatures are among the most delicate examples of late-fifteenth-century art.
Angels Displaying the Crown of Thorns (fol. 30, right)
Poyer's penultimate image
offers an immediate and
intimate encounter with a
powerful symbol of Christ's
Passion.
Anne de Bretagne was particularly devoted to the Crown of
Thorns. King
Louis IX of France had acquired
the Crown of Thorns in 1239;
he built the Ste.-Chapelle as a
suitable church in which to
house it and other relics. Anne
de Bretagne, as queen, had
particular and private access to
the chapelle and its precious
contents.
