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 Notice of a Portrait of John, King of France. 199 In the same year the marriage of Blanche de Bourbon with Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, furnished further occupation for the King's painter. In the accounts of the expenses we find the following entries under the head of communes choses :" Pour une aune dc velluau vermeil des fore, baillie'e & maistre Girart d'Orliens, paintrc, pour couvrir 2 chaaires, 1'une : dossier pour atourner ladicte dame, 1'autre sans dossier pour soy laver, 6 escuz et demi. Ledit maistre Girart pour la facon des dictes 2 ehaires les quelles furent paintesd'azur.et les tostes estancellees de fin or, 14'. Pour une damoisclle a attourner b, 60' par. Et pour une neccessaire couverte de cuir et envelopee dc drap, 4 1 . The expenses during the King's captivity show that Maitre Girard was em- ployed in making or repairing the King's furniture, trunks, &c. c though the items are not of so sumptuous a character as those mentioned above. He was also commissioned by the King to supply some deficiencies in his set of chessmen, namely five pawns and a bishop. d He seems to have had the charge of some wooden carvings belonging to the King, as another entry notices the purchase of two baskets "pour mettre certains yrnages dc fust pour le Roy." c The only entries, relating to what we should consider the proper functions of his office, are thus given in the accounts published by his lloyal Highness the Due d'Aumale. In February, 1359, we find f : Maistre Girart d'Orliens, paintre et varlet de charabrc du Roy, pour plusieurs otilz acla-tez du commandement du Roy, pour faire certains tableaux quo le Roy le a commando a i'aire pour li, paie du commandement du dit Seigneur, pour tout xxxiij". iiij d . On the 4th of April following is another entry :*- Maistre Girart d'Orliens, pour certains hotilx a faire son mesticr en certains tableaux que le Roy fait faire, paie du commandement du Roy, ij s . iiij d . We do not learn from these entries the nature of the pictures which the King had ordered, nor what was their destination. It is not impossible that the por- trait which forms the subject of this communication may have been painted by Maitre Girard for the King, to be given, perhaps, to one of his noble visitors and relations, such as the Countess of St. Pol or of Warren. a Comptes de 1'Argenterie, p. 300. f Demoiselle a atourner, a wooden figure to support a mirror, and the dresses of the lady in whose room it was placed. See Count de Laborde's Notice des Emaux du Louvre. Glossaire. c Philobiblon Miscellany, pp. 95, 97, 100. Comptes de 1'Argenterie, p. 2C4. > Philobiblon Miscellany, p. 99. e Philobiblon Miscellany, p. 112. ' Ibid. p. 107. * n> id - P- 118 -