Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/231

Rh dessus dictes, et trouvera toutes les choaes necessaires à ce, excepté buche à ardoir et liz pour hosteler ly et sea gens, en la maniere que l'en ly a trouvé ou temps passé. Et pour ce faire doit avoir six cens moutons, desquiex il aura lea deux cens à présent sur le terme de Pasques et deux cens à la sainct Michel prochainement venant, et lea autrea deux cens au terme de Pasquea après ensuivant.

Accordé et commendé par Monsr le duc de Normandie au Val de Rueil, le xxve jour de Mars

What part Girard d'Orleans took in these works does not clearly appear; it is possible that he may have sketched the designs, and, being obliged to remain with the King, he may have left them to be finished by Jean Coste. Whether they were ever completed is very doubtful, for, the date of the document being according to the old computation, the transaction to which it refers took place in the spring of the historical year 1360, and in less than six months afterwards the disastrous defeat of the French army at Poictiers must have put an end to all royal works, and the money required for the ransom of the King and his adherents must have prevented any expenditure in ornamenting his castles.

There is one passage in this document of considerable interest, as it bears on that much-vexed question, the invention of oil-painting by Van Eyck. This has been already denied on the authority of other documents; but the agreement for Vaudreuil specifies most distinctly that the colours were to be à huile, that is, mixed with oil.

I have already mentioned that the picture of King John is remarkable as an early specimen of a portrait; that is, a painting intended merely to represent a person, as distinguished from the usual pictures of the period in which the portraitures were accessories. Three religious paintings containing figures of the King are recorded by Montfaucon as existing in his time. One of them was an altarpiece in the chapel of S. Hippolyte, at S. Denis; another was in the Sainte Chapelle, and the third in the chapel of S. Michel at Paris; but the stormy period which has intervened, and the violence directed against every reminiscence of royalty, have in all probability led to their destruction.

Believe me to be, my dear Sir, sincerely yours, C. D'EYNCOURT.